As of Friday last, April 7th 2006, the .eu domain, which is intended to be the domain name for Europe has been open to everyone resident in the European Union.
To date there have been nearly 1.5 million domains actively registered.
Whether the rate of registrations will continue at the current rate remains to be seen, but one thing is certain .eu is attracting a lot of media coverage.
So, should you register a .eu?
If you are serious about protecting your brand name online and already own the corresponding .ie,com,net,org,info and .biz then I would say that it makes sense to get it (if you can!).
While it is possible to initiate proceedings if you feel that someone is “squatting” on your domain it is a lot more cost-effective to register the domain before anyone else does.
While you are at it, you might also want to consider protecting your brand in other European countries 
About the Author: Michele Neylon
