Tens of thousands of Czech businesses have joined a battle for three simple characters — .eu — at the end of their Web addresses.

The European Union Registry of Internet Domain Names (EURid) has invited EU businesses and individuals to register for Internet domain names with an .eu suffix.

Before April 7, only government offices and business-trademark holders could apply, but now .eu domains are available to virtually anyone.

And the interest has been enormous, especially from businesses, which realize that a .eu domain name gives them more access to EU markets.

"It'll give our company more recognition, which will be helpful for our European expansion," said Věra Kudynová, spokeswoman for Czech pharmaceutical company Zentiva, which last year entered the Balkans.

By mid-April, EURid registered about 17,000 Czech applications. It is a small part of the more than 1 million applications it received in total, which paralyzed the EURid server.

"The interest exceeded our expectations," said Marc Van Wesemael, marketing director for EURid.

EURid is now screening the registrations and is expected to open the first .eu domains this summer.

The rush to claim a .eu domain stems from the first-come-first-serve basis on which they're being distributed.

As a result, České Budějovice–

based brewery Budvar probably won't be able to use the Internet address www.budweiser.eu because its application arrived later than arch rival Anheuser Busch's. The Czech company will have to use www.budvar.eu as its address.

Opening doors

Businesses are fighting for the European Internet addresses because a .eu domain essentially open doors to EU markets, said Clemens Wohlmuth, CEO and chairman of the board of directors at Czech On Line (also known as Volný), which compiles .eu domain applications and passes them on to EURid.

The sectors in the hottest pursuit of .eu domains are real estate, accommodation and erotic services, according to Jan Hájek, director of Explorer, another one of the 13 Czech domain providers that compile and pass applications for European addresses to Brussels.

Demand for EU domains is so strong that people are already registering domains that might be valuable in the future. Domain name speculation, or cybersquatting, is the act of purchasing an Internet domain in the hopes that it can later be sold at a higher price.

To make sure their applications will be accepted by EURid, speculators are approaching the Czech trademark office with requests to register various general names such as zdraví (health), hokej (hockey) and others. In many cases, however, the office turns down applicants for failing to prove that their businesses are widely associated with such names, said spokeswoman Markéta Hezinová.

Companies that do find themselves the victims of cybersquatting can appeal to the Arbitration Court in Prague. The court received 70 appeals in mid-April, according to spokeswoman Dagmar Uchytilová.

The court has not handed down a decision on any of the 70 appeals.

Ondřej Filip, director of Czech domain register CZ.NIC, said legal appeals over Internet domain registration usually end in favor of the plaintiff.

"Altogether," Filip said, "30 disputes over Internet domains were settled in this country in the past, either through a court's ruling or through an out-of-court settlement."

'We are patriots'

The .eu domains have generated the most interest in Germany, from which EURid has received 420,000 applications. Approximately 270,000 applications have arrived from the United Kingdom and 160,000 from the Netherlands.

In this country, at least, there is some resistance to the .eu domains. Some companies insist they don't need European Internet address.