Trademark Holders and Public Bodies have specific methods of application (click relevant link for more information) the information below pertains to other rights holders (Company or Trading Names etc).

During the second Sunrise phase (Feb 7th 2006 to April 6th 2006) any person resident in the EU or any organization headquartered in the EU may apply for a .eu domain name where they have a Prior Right that is protected under the law of an EU member state. This affords prior rights holders an early chance to protect their marks before open and unrestricted registration begins on 7th April 2006. Applications may be queued with accredited registrars prior to and during this period. The vast majority of such applications are expected to be processed during the first few minutes of the phase starting so we recommend that holders submit their applications well in advance of this date and in any event before the start of the Landrush Period (7th April 2006) when unrestricted registration will be allowed.

• Download and read the information leaflet (above).
• Download and complete the application form (above).
• Send completed application & payment by post or fax to Irish Domains

• Irish Domains submit your application to EURid
• You receive an acknowledgement from EURid
• You prepare your supporting documentation (see below)
• You download & sign EURid cover sheet
• You send cover sheet & docs to scanning centre (to arrive within 40 days)
• EURid checks applications in order of receipt of original application.
• If all is OK, EURid will accept your application and register the domain to you
  
• If there are no challenges to your registration, it activates after 40 days.

You can check the status of your application on www.whois.eu anytime.

Any name or mark that is protected as a right under Irish law may be applied for during the Sunrise II period. However please note that having a registered Company name, Registered Business name, Trading name or Unregistered Trademark does not in itself entitle you to a .eu domain name as the protection in Irish law for such names is not sufficient although it will help … you must also be able to satisfactorily prove that passing-off rights exist in the name (generally such rights are obtained by usage).

The domain name requested must be exactly the same as the right held except that spaces may be omitted or replaced by hyphens, and other non-alphanumeric characters may be omitted, hyphenated or rewritten (such as substituting the word "and" for an ampersand etc.). Hyphens in the name must be present in the domain also, but Plc, Ltd, Teo, Limited etc may be omitted. All other valid characters in the Prior Right must be used. For example, if your Prior Right is "ACME (Ireland) Limited" then you may only apply for acmeireland.eu and/or acme-ireland.eu. If your Prior Right is "ACME.IE" then you may only apply for acmeie.eu and/or acme-ie.eu.

Supporting documentation is not required at time of application, however it must be received by the registry processing agents within 40 days of the receipt of the application by EURid. The documentation must be as required by the .eu Sunrise Rules but will typically consist of:

1. The Official EURid cover page with barcode; and
2. A signed affidavit from a competent authority, legal practitioner or professional representative stating that the Prior Right meets the conditions under Irish Law for having protection against "passing-off". The affidavit must also state or include evidence that the signatory is a competent authority, legal practitioner or professional representative as defined under the .eu Sunrise rules; and
3. Supporting documentation sufficient for the validation agent to establish, on the basis of a prima-facie review, that the Prior Right meets the conditions required by Irish law. It is up to the applicant or their advisor to determine the appropriate type and level of documentation to be submitted however such documentation must also clearly establish that the Prior Right is actually held by the applicant.

After your application is submited, the application confirmation email will contain a link to download a cover page to accompany the documentation. This will contain the address to send the supporting documentation.

Documents should not be sent to Irish Domains.

Supporting documentation must fulfill the technical requirements of the Sunrise rules to ensure that they can be easily scanned by the processing agents. This includes being consecutively numbered, not being stapled, bound or folded, being printed on white A4 paper and including the correctly filled out and signed cover sheet provided by EURid.

The fee charged by Irish Domains for submitting each .eu Sunrise II application by a Prior Right holder is €129 + VAT. This fee includes all registry processing fees and also includes the registration of the domain for 1 year if successful. This fee must accompany the application unless otherwise arranged.

The application fee is not refundable once the application is received by EURid irrespective of whether or not the application succeeds. However if you fail to register your domain, a credit will be applied allowing you to register another .eu name during open registration. Please note also that there is no guarantee that any particular Sunrise or Landrush application will be successful due to the possibility of competing applications, rejection by validation agents or dispute resolution procedures initiated by third parties.

The following links contain further information on .eu domain registration...

• EURid - The official .eu registry operator
• PWC Belgium- The Sunrise period validation agents