Partner of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek is an arbitrator at the Czech Arbitration Court in Prague

Dominik Eickemeier (38), an attorney und partner at the Cologne office of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, is one of currently eleven arbitrators from Germany working at the Czech Arbitration Court in Prague. The Czech Arbitration Court was appointed by the EURid granting authority to provide an alternative dispute resolution procedure for disputes involved in the award of .eu domain names. This so-called ADR procedure (Alternative Dispute Resolution) makes it possible, in addition to resorting to regular national courts, to have domain name disputes decided by an international arbitration court in a comparatively cost-effective and speedy manner. ADR proceedings are always for complaints regarding the award or non-award of .eu domain names.

One-person or three-person commissions ("panels") decide on the ownership of the domain name. "All the arbitrators are experienced practitioners in domain and trademark law issues from all over the EU," Eickemeier explains. "The advantage of this court is that it is composed of attorneys with a practical knowledge. Moreover, the ADR procedure makes it possible to implement the decisions quickly, since EURid implements the decision promptly, without an enforcement of judgment being necessary. This is an advantage particularly in the case of proceedings against EURid." Another advantage is that the procedure makes it possible to transfer the domain name to the complainant. In German law this is possible only in rare cases.

All decisions are published here.