Fuel on the fire

["Marty Modell" <ir001264@mindspring.com>]

                                clari.tw.new_media                    
                                                      
Subject:	UK - Harrods Wins Internet Domain Naming Court Case 01/08/97
Source:	NB / LON Date:	01-08-97 07:28:23 PM              
Copyright:	Copyright 1997 by Newsbytes News Network       


LONDON, ENGLAND, 1997 JAN 8 (NB) -- By Steve Gold. Harrods has won a 
High Court legal case surrounding the rights to harrods.com, an
Internet domain name. 

The precedent follows a lengthy case stemming from Michael Lawrie and 
other defendants registering the domain name, along with some 50 other
names corresponding to well-known companies. 

In court, it was held that the actions of the defendants "clearly 
constituted infringement of Harrods' registered trade marks and
passing off." The defendants were ordered by the court to hand over
the domain name to Harrods and costs were awarded against them. 

Nominet UK, the national registry for all Internet domain names ending
 "uk", has welcomed the High Court judgment in favor of Harrods in
relation to the use of the domain name "harrods.com" 

Dr. Willie Black, managing director of Nominet UK, said: "Although the
 Harrods case relates to the `com' top level domain, which is the
responsibility of Network Solutions in the US, we have been watching
developments with considerable interest. 

"We're very pleased that the issues raised in the case have now been 
considered by the English court. Domain name applicants, brand name
owners, and Nominet itself, now have a clearer picture of how the
courts are likely to decide domain name litigation in future cases,"
he said. 

"Nominet is currently refining its own procedures for dealing with 
domain name disputes in the UK top level domain and sees the Harrods
judgment as a valuable input to this process," he added. 

Newsbytes notes that Nominet UK is the national registry for all 
Internet domain names ending in uk. Nominet claims it derives its
authority from the Internet industry in the UK and the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in the US. 




--  
Marty Modell                     e-mail: ir001264@mindspring.com 
      http://www.mindspring.com/~ir001264/Home.htm         
                  author of 
      A Professional's Guide to Systems Analysis
         Second Edition - McGraw Hill - 1996