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.