By Tony Hallett, 5 August 2005 15:40
NEWS Internet domain names registrar Nominet has been handed a victory in its court case with entrepreneur Benjamin Cohen, who had disputed a Nominet ruling ordering him to give the iTunes.co.uk address to Apple.
In a statement, Nominet said the judge found Cohen's "application was flawed in several respects".
The registrar added: "Nominet UK is proud of its award winning Dispute Resolution Service and remains confident that it provides a mechanism for settling disputes for hundreds of small users for whom the courts are out of reach."
Cohen's claims had focused on a registering of the URL before Apple's trademarking of iTunes - now a well-known brand - had been disclosed.
By March this year it looked like Apple had won the tussle, with Cohen's company, CyberBritain, being told to transfer the domain to the US computer company.
However, by the end of that month, Cohen had announced plans to take the matter to the High Court, claiming Nominet was biased in favour of larger companies. He also questioned Nominet's authority as a body to resolve such disputes.
Cohen now has seven days to apply to the court for an oral hearing before the matter is closed.
In a written response Cohen's company said: "CyberBritain is considering its options together with its legal team. It is currently reviewing the decision and is strongly considering making an application for an oral hearing before the judge to review the decision."
The www.itunes.co.uk URL currently redirects to www.apple.com/uk/itunes.
Comments
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1. Bill Citrine
Cohen's just going to have to take it on the chin. He refused an offer of $5000 - he wanted about $90000. He knew what he was doing when he used the domain to redirect surfers to his own sites (it's obvious where they wanted to go!). He also knew what he was doing when he used it to redirect to Napster - before he even tried to sell it to them... how stupid! What did he hope to achieve by that? Did he honestly think Napster would want to get involved with a tacky little trick like that?
2. anonymous
I am in same situation with expediate.com- expedia.com. I have been using my domain for IT web design and hosting since 1999. Expedia published to net in 2001 as expedia.com. They are just mopping up any domain name with expedia in it. This is not what ICANN was about. Corporate theft.
3. anonymous
expedia win expediate.com in ICANN dispute. The finding vertually ignored the fact that expediate.com is an it consultancy, publisher and web design since 1998. Thus providing legitamate supply of goods and services.
The decision then allows 10 days for a court action, impossible to achieve. The process is a disgrace. I have now lost my business doamin and have to repair all my software registrations, business contacts in 10 days since 1998.