WRITTEN QUESTION P-1235/00 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission. Bristol Austria ‐ Dipl. Ing K. J. Madden v Pfeifer Ges.m.b.H..
28. 12. 2000 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 374 E/213 (2000/C 374 E/251) WRITTEN QUESTION P-1235/00 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission (10 April 2000) Subject: Bristol Austria ü Dipl. Ing K. J. Madden v Pfeifer Ges. m. b. H. Bristol Austria ü Dipl is a small company registered under the ownerís name: Mr Ken J Madden. This company is a consultancy for British companies wishing to export to Central Europe, and deals particularly with Bristol Uniforms Ltdí, which supplies firebrigade uniforms to the Austrian firebrigade. Mr Maddenís company has a website address: ábristol-austria. comí. J. Maddení Ing K. An Austrian producer known as Pfeifer Ges. m. b. H. has insisted that Mr Maddenís company change its website address from ábristol-austria. comí to something not including the word Austria. Mr Maddenís company has until 6 April to comply with this request or to defend the action. Yet the website address does not indicate that the company is anything other than a proprietorship. Pfeifer is virtually a monopoly in Austria, being one of two Austrian producers of protective fire clothing. In 1997 they were sued by the Austrian Feuerwehrverband (Fire Brigade Association) for falsely using the registered logo of the Verband together with a subsidiary company name, and more recently have launched a new fire-coat onto the European market which BTTG (the UKís premier test house) and two separate German test houses have found after extensive testing to be 32 % under the required standard. Will the Commission look into this matter and determine whether or not Pfeifer Ges. m. b. H. has been acting illegally in trying to force Mr Maddenís company to change its website address? Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission (12 May 2000) The Honourable Memberís question appears on the basis of the information submitted to relate to a domain name dispute under the. COM top level domain. The registration of domain names within. COM is the responsibility of the company Network Solutions Inc. (NSI). The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has put in place a uniform dispute resolution procedure that may be applied to all trademark-related disputes arising from registration made in. COM. Under the policy set by ICANN, most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, arbitration or court action, before a registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name (see http://www. icann. org/udrp/udrp. htm). Disputes which arise from abusive registrations of domain names (for example, cybersquatting) may be addressed by expedited administrative proceedings that the holder of the trademark rights initiates by filing a complaint with an approved dispute-resolution service provider. The Commission is not competent to decide on such cases. It might be necessary for the Honourable Memberís constituent to seek legal advice from a specialist in this area. (2000/C 374 E/252) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1255/00 by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (14 April 2000) Subject: Italian girl held in Kuwait City Erica is thirteen years old and has an Italian mother and an Egyptian father. Since mid-January she has been sheltering in the Italian Embassy in Kuwait City, where she went of her own accord for help. The girl,