The much debated legislative bill present by the Italian government aimed at regulating the ".it" domain names seems destined for the time being to be frozen.
Aimed at preventing different forms of cybersquatting, or the appropriation of domaine names for trading purposes, the bill was unfortunately ill-conceived, confused and excessively restrictive. However, some kind of regulation more articulate than "first come, first served" is badly needed.
Actually, besides the "traditional" use of the ".it" by Italian domestic business, there has recently been a massive registration of domain names by foreign organisations in Italy, largely due to the attention generated by the secondary meanings of the suffix "it" which coincides with the English pronoun (as in "buy.it"!) and the usual acronym for the Information Technology.
In the meantime, litigants must rely on the sparse Italian case law to find guidelines in this respect. An interesting and operational model is WIPO arbitration where the handling of conflicts on this matter have thusfar been largely successful. The system, while limited in its scope, permits rapid resolutions at competitive costs, without prejudice for the possibile subsequent commencement of following civil or criminal proceedings whenever appropriate.
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