itunes.co.uk Owner Ordered to Give Up Domain, Considers Appeal

[andriegel]

The owner of the itunes.co.uk domain is considering an appeal to Britain's High Court after Nominet, the UK Internet registry, ordered him to give up the address to Apple.

Benjamin Cohen says that he's not a "cyber squatter," and that he registered the domain before Apple applied for a trademark in the UK, as well as three years before the US launch of the iTunes Music Store and four years before the UK iTunes Music Store, The Times reported.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/03/15.6.shtml
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[Zeeble]

this should be an interesting one. Obvioulsy a domain squatter though. Someone had ipod.co.uk a while back but nothing happened to them...

very valuable domain too, gets over 25k uniques per month, its up for sale at sedo now and has been for sale for over a year.

 

[PoorDoggie]

wait a minute...

I am confused. I thought that trademark issues only effected a certain category. For instance: I thought that I could set up a company selling apples, called Apple and because it was about apples, it wouldn't be affected by trademarking issues.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

If he owned the domain befroe iTunes Came About, what is the Problem. This is annoying, So if a company comes along and registers a trademark that happens to be my name, do they have a right to that name.... I should hope not!

They just want everything, All I have to say is that Im glad he got to it before they did because they are just damn greedy!!

 

[Dave_Z]

We need a reminder once in a while:

http://namepros.com/showthread.php?t=58833&highlight=apple+itunes

http://webdb4.patent.gov.uk/tm/text

2249936 ITUNES WO 24.10.2000
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Domain Name:
itunes.co.uk
Registrant:
CyberBritain Group Ltd
Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 07-Nov-2000

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The TM lodgement date is October 24, 2000. The domain name was registered November 7, 2000.

I am confused. I thought that trademark issues only effected a certain category. For instance: I thought that I could set up a company selling apples, called Apple and because it was about apples, it wouldn't be affected by trademarking issues.

You have to prove you do have a legitimate use for the name or aren't using it
in bad faith. The registrant in the apple itunes case didn't prove either one as
well as a few other factors needed to win.

 

[PoorDoggie]

You have to prove you do have a legitimate use for the name or aren't using it
in bad faith. The registrant in the apple itunes case didn't prove either one as
well as a few other factors needed to win.

OK Thanks

can I just ask - when did iTunes come about? Because the way I see it is that this guy purposely reg'd itunes.co.uk when itunes came out, and before the trademark was applied.

This isn't fair as it is geting the domain in "bad faith" isn't it? Thats another thing that annoys me, is that people think it is ok to rip off big companies!

anyway... the domain itunes.co.uk just forwards to "http://www.cyberbritain.com/itunes/" which is a free stuff site!

 

[Anthony]

Why does he want to fight for it, if he has no plans to use it?

 

[Wesley]

He's lost his case. He registered the domain knowing that Apple would be applying for the TM in the UK fairly soon. Apple is a world-wide company, he knew it would happen, that's why he reged it. I say he's lost it =) Thank God.

 

[Badger]

From memory the guy has all sorts of pending tm vios against him, he has domains -only for sale- and cant prove that he has ever developed any sites.

I mean, fair play to his ingenuity but if youre gonna cybersquat, go the whole hog, know what i mean.....

 

[businessdata]

Just another thwarted scammer

From what I have read about Mr Cohen, green about the gills he is certainly not. We are all well aware of the techniques used by many cybersquatters to make a quick buck.

One of the more well-known tricks is to observe big multinational companies registering .com domains for new products or services and then snap up international versions (i.e. .co.uk) of those domains, which can be bought for as little as £5 for 2 years. Some of the multinationals will sooner or later come to roll out their service around the world, and if they have not already registered a local trademark for the new product or service they will be forced to negotiate with the cybersquatters. Now Apple Computer Inc. had the initial iTunes idea back in 1998 and on August 11, 1998 registered iTunes.com. Over the next two years, rumours abounded about Apple's forthcoming music download service.

By 2000, even I, a relative musical philistine, was aware that a very exciting online musical concept called iTunes, was due to be launched imminently. Now I really struggle to imagine that an internet-savvy 18 yr old (at that time) entrepreneur, with his ear to the deepest hums of the net, would have registered iTunes.co.uk in complete ignorance of Apple's intentions, and without checking the ownership of iTunes.com less than one month before Apple published it's iTunes trademark in the journal of the British Patent Office. The lad is simply gutted that his latest cybersquatting scam just didn't pay off. Oh dear.

 

[andriegel]

Interesting comments, BusinessData. Welcome to NamePros!


Andrew

 

[GJ]

This will be a intresting case.

 

[crazy]

Hmm, sounds like it could be big! I think he should be able to sell the name to iTunes if they want it so bad.

 

[GJ]

Yeah, Get some BIG money!