In the first 50 days since the registration period officially opened on 7 December 2005, the European domain name registry has received a total of 166,232 applications of which 52,636 originated in Germany.
British businesses are lagging behind the Germans, Dutch and French having submitted 15,819 applications.
Of the 166,232 .eu applications, 121,985 were unique requests. The remaining 44,247 are potential domain name disputes where two or more parties have claimed they have a prior right or trademark to use that domain
Sex is the most disputed application - 236 separate applications say they have a prior right to sex.eu. Hotel.eu is the next most disputed with 123 applications.
"The disputes have the potential to be very costly for the companies involved," says Jonathan Robinson, business development director, NetNames. "Many companies across Europe could have equal claim to a specific domain name but it's a case of first come, first served. Failure to get in before anyone else could result in a costly retrieval process."
Registration for the .eu domain name is currently only open to trademark and prior rights holders in the European Union.
Applicants are required to submit documentary evidence of their right to the domain within 40 days of an application being made.
Prior to 7 December official registrars such as NetNames were accepting pre-registrations which were processed by the registry in the order they were received.
Robinson added: "British companies must act quickly to ensure their online brands are protected across Europe. Applications are dealt with in the order they are received, so any delay could cause your brand significant damage if your trademarks and names are registered by another party."
NetNames manages the domain name portfolios for over 30% of the FTSE 100 companies and is an accredited registrar for the new .eu European domain name. The new .eu European domain name costs £35 per annum.
European .eu top ten
1. Germany 34.7%
2. The Netherlands 15.6%
3. France 13.4%
4. United Kingdom 10.4%
5. Italy 5.7%
6. Belgium 5.6%
7. Sweden 4.4%
8. Spain 3.9%
9. Austria 3.2%
10. Switzerland 3.2%
