In a ruling that could affect domain name ownership guidelines, Britain's High Court on Tuesday ordered four defendants to hand over harrods.com to the British department store, saying that it "clearly constituted infringement of Harrods' registered trademarks."
"Essentially, the court has said that domain names are a form of intellectual property," said Mikki Barry, a US attorney who specializes in Internet policy. "While at first blush that might seem an OK thing, trademarks are meant to identify goods and services. The mere fact that one has a domain name does not imply there is a good or service associated with it."
The defendants, Michael Lawrie and four associates, did not show up for the hearing, and details of the ruling were not given by the judge. This is the first case of domain name disputes heard in British court.
"Their little scam didn't last long," a Harrods spokesman told the Electronic Telegraph. "In America, companies have tended to buy people off rather than fight them, so this ruling may be helpful to other companies who find themselves in this position."
InterNIC, operated by the US National Science Foundation and Network Solutions Inc., controls all .com domain names. Domain name ownership guidelines are still unclear and most disputes in the United States are settled out of court.
"This ruling also implies that if you use your initials or name for a domain name that you may have had since the Net was flat, and a company comes along claiming rights to the name, you might be faced with a very expensive lawsuit, and a claim of trademark infringement," Barry added.
