Irish registry contemplation liberalization of the rules

The Irish registry IEDR is currently carrying out a public consultation asking if it should loosen its registration rules or not. Currently, in order to register a .ie domain name, you need to proof a link with Ireland and to have a claim on the domain name you want to register. This claim can be a registered trade mark or a company name, which are easy to verify. But it could just as well be something more vague like a type of service you plan to offer in the future. The new plan would be to still require proof of a bond with Ireland, but if you can proof such an Irish link, then you may register any .ie domain name.

Removing this requirement will be a two-edged sword. On the one hand the current rules allow so much room for interpretation, that if you really want, you can already register for example a generic .ie domain name. So you could question the usefulness of such a rule. It seems to only make the application more complicated and unwieldy. But on the other hand, it does look like it has largely kept domainers and cybersquatters out of the .ie zone. If you really had nothing to do with a certain domain name, expect for wanting to buy it in order to sell it on to somebody else, you were not able to register it.

It is safe to assume that, once the .ie-rules are relaxed, this will attract more cybersquatting to .ie domain names. Just like with other extensions that only require proof of a local connection (like .ca and .com.au). Such rules cause local cybersquaters to be able to more easily obtain a domain name than foreign trade mark holders and this power is often abused.