Geographic Indications Protected under the Recently Adopted Variation of UDRP for .ro ccTLDs

The Registry operating the country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) for .ro (Romania) has just adopted a variation of the UDRP to apply to ADR procedures to settle disputes relating to the registration of domain names.

The main purpose of adopting the UDRP variation was to comply with the European regulations imposing that such ADR procedures also cover geographical indications as protected identifiers.

The variation also includes other changes, such as making the proceedings entirely paperless, indicating Romanian courts for the mutual jurisdiction clause, and setting new rules for the language of the proceedings.

In addition to the above, the most significant change in the variation is the one making the requirements that a complainant must meet under the third element of the UDRP an alternative requirement, instead of a cumulative one. Therefore, a complainant must prove bad faith registration or bad faith use of a domain name, instead of having to prove both, as previously required.

The new Policy and Rules will come into effect 30 days after their publication on 2 February 2026, and will be applicable to all disputes initiated with that date.

Background

Conflicts between trademarks and domain names can be solved using a very efficient alternative dispute resolution procedure under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) that was adopted in October 1999 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) following a process initiated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

UDRP is used to resolve domain name disputes for all generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”), including the new gTLDs, and also for a number of country-code top-level domains (“ccTLDs”), in certain cases as a modified version of the UDRP.

For over 25 years UDRP was also applied as an ADR for disputes steaming from registration of .ro TLDs.

On 23 January 2026 a variation of the UDRP was approved by the Registry managing the .ro ccTLDs. The Registry also approved the Rules to apply to the proceedings. Both of them were published on 2 February 2026.

The changes were necessary to comply with the obligations in European regulations, that envisage measures to strengthen the protection of geographical indications and to combat counterfeiting effectively, including on the internet.

As such, Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 on the protection of geographical indications for craft and industrial products and amending Regulations (EU) 2017/1001 and (EU) 2019/1753 (“Regulation (EU) 2023/2411”) mandated as follows:

“Country-code top-level domain name registries established in the Union shall ensure that any alternative dispute resolution procedures for domain names recognise registered geographical indications as a right that can be invoked in those procedures.” (article 46) See also recitals 38, 44, 45 or 64 of the same Regulation.

In addition, Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, as well as traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms for agricultural products, amending Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2019/787 and (EU) 2019/1753 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 (“Regulation (EU) 2024/1143”) provides that:

“Country-code top-level domain name registries established in the Union shall ensure that alternative dispute resolution procedures for domain names recognise registered geographical indications as a right that can be invoked in those procedures.” (article 35.1) See also recitals 33 or 45 of the same Regulation.

Main changes

• Removing the cumulative requirement under the third element

In addition to allowing protection of geographical indications that can now be invoked by complainants in ADR procedures concerning registration of .ro domain names, the most significant change is the removal of the cumulative requirement under the third element of the Policy.

As such, under the UDRP, as it was applied to .ro domains, under the third element, the complainant must prove that the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. This is a conjunctive requirement, therefore bad faith must exist both at the date of registration and at the date of the complaint.

However, under the variation adopted for the .ro domains, the requirement that the complainant must meet is alternative: the complainant will succeed under this element if it proves either bad faith registration or bad faith use of the domain name in dispute.

This change was also adopted for other ccTLDs, for example in the ADR policies concerning the ccTLDs .nl (Netherlands), .ad (Andorra), .lv (Latvia), .ie (Ireland) or .es (Spain).

This change seems to also be consistent with the wording in recital 44 of the Regulation (EU) 2023/2411, that only refers to bad faith use of the domain name when discussing protection of geographical indications in the online environment.

Changing “and” to “or” is also discussed during the UDRP review process, but despite acknowledgement of this being an important topic, consensus on implementation details still need to be reached. As such, the recommendation in the Final Report of the WIPO-ICA UDRP Review Project Team (December 2, 2025), was that “an examination of the possible introduction of “and/or” in limited circumstances, and the inclusion of express safeguards, be discussed in a dedicated work track in Phase 2 wherein the ICANN Community can engage in what are likely to be more complex deliberations to seek consensus on this issue.”

• mutual jurisdiction was changed to Romania

The mutual jurisdiction is that of the courts in Romania.

Under the UDRP, which was previously applied for .ro disputes, the mutual jurisdiction is defined in the Rules as “a court jurisdiction at the location of either (a) the principal office of the Registrar (provided the domain-name holder has submitted in its Registration Agreement to that jurisdiction for court adjudication of disputes concerning or arising from the use of the domain name) or (b) the domain-name holder’s address as shown for the registration of the domain name in Registrar’s Whois database at the time the complaint is submitted to the Provider.”

The mutual jurisdiction is relevant because initiating UDRP proceedings (including under the UDRP variation) does not prevent either party from filing a lawsuit to resolve the dispute in a court of mutual jurisdiction before, during, or after the administrative proceeding. (Policy, 4k)

• changes to the language of proceedings

According to paragraph 11(1) of the Rules as approved by the Registry for .ro, “[u]nless otherwise agreed by the Parties, or specified otherwise in the Registration Agreement, the language of the administrative proceeding shall be Romanian where the Respondent has, in the registrant’s contact details, an address in Romania, or English where the Respondent has, in the registrant’s contact details, an address outside Romania, subject to the Panel’s authority to determine otherwise, having regard to the circumstances of the administrative proceeding.”

Under the UDRP, which was previously applied for .ro disputes, paragraph 11 reads as follows: “[u]nless otherwise agreed by the Parties, or specified otherwise in the Registration Agreement, the language of the administrative proceeding shall be the language of the Registration Agreement, subject to the authority of the Panel to determine otherwise, having regard to the circumstances of the administrative proceeding.”

Under the formerly applicable rules, proceedings have been caried out for .ro disputes either in English or in Romanian language, depending largely on the panel determination on a case-by-case basis, mainly as the registration agreement was available both in Romanian and in English language.

• proceedings are conducted only electronically

Under the previously applied rules, the respondent had to be notified by hard copy about the proceedings.

The rules currently applicable after the approval of the UDRP variation for .ro disputes provide that the notification is only done electronically. Also, the complainant and the response and any annexes should only be submitted electronically.

This amendment is beneficial both to expedite the proceedings and to reduce the carbon footprint of the proceedings.

Final Remarks

This development follows similar ones of other ccTLD registries in the European Union, that had to amend their policies or adopt new ones to cover geographical indications in addition to trademarks, as compelled by the relevant European regulations.

Few registries included other identifiers as well, such as trade names or registered personal names, name of a Dutch public legal entity or name of an association or foundation located in the Netherlands, as it is the case for the policy for .nl (Netherlands).

Furthermore, the policy for ad. (Andorra) protects a even broader pool of identifiers in addition to registered trademarks and geographical indications, such as:  commercial names registered in Andorra before the Oficina de Marques I Patents del Principal d’Andorra or, unregistered trademark rights that have been validated through court proceedings before the Andorran Courts, or the complainant’s company, business or other legal or trading name, as registered with the relevant Andorran government authority, or the complainant’s personal name or “notorious” pseudonyms, which professionally identify, among others, intellectual or content creators, politicians and figures of the show or sport, when such notorious figure is well known in Andorra, or official or generally recognizable names of public administrators of Andorra and Andorran public bodies and/or Andorran public services, or names of public infrastructures in Andorra as well as geographical names and local landmarks or places of interest in Andorra over which the complainant is the competent authority, including obvious acronyms and abbreviations thereof.

Even if the Registry operating the ccTLD for .ro opted for including only geographical indications as protected identifiers, the change is significant to comply with the European regulations and avoid infringement, the other changes being significant as well.