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

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

by , 11:30 AM EST, March 15th, 2005

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.

Nominet ruled that Mr. Cohen had made an "abusive registration," and that he "is using the domain name in a way which has confused people or businesses into believing that the domain name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the complainant".

itunes.co.uk currently redirects visitors to a page Mr. Cohen's company owns advertising Napster; Mr. Cohen presumably gets a small commission for everyone who signs up through the page.

Appealing Nominet's decision can be an expensive process, Mr. Cohen says, but he is encouraged by the recent High Court ruling that allowed the owner of Phone4U.co.uk to keep the domain after retailer Phones4U.co.uk sued for it.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:PontiMac X Posts: 17 Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:46 pm Subject: Redirect?

Quote
itunes.co.uk currently redirects visitors to a page Mr. Cohen's company owns advertising Napster


If the re-direct goes straight to Napster.co.uk, then this would make the case against him that much stronger.


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Close Name:Guest
Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:52 pm Subject:

If he successfully registered the domain (years) before itunes there should be no issues. It's his domain and have a nice evening.
/quote
Nominet ruled that itunes.co.uk owner Benjamin Cohen had made an "abusive registration," /quote
he might have been smart or luky ... but abusive?
If so, next time when one of you are going to register a domain better check your horoscope or ask Steeve if he has nothing against it.
Lol, what if Satan wants apple.com for himself?


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Close Name:Guest
Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:07 pm Subject:

Or you'd better make sure that you aren't Apple's competitior before you register a country-specific version of one of their domain names, and have it forward you to a sign-up page for your own service while upping your referral counter.


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Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Wed Mar 16, 2005 5:28 pm Subject: legal opinions

Quote
Guest wrote:
If he successfully registered the domain (years) before itunes there should be no issues. It's his domain and have a nice evening.


Oh, you must be a licensed solicitor or barrister in the UK, as you're giving a definitive legal opinion. This has been one of the uglier things about discussions of issues like this one and the Apple lawsuits: non-attorneys spewing forth opinions on complex legal issues.


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