Apple iTunes.co.uk domain
16 March 2005
Apple has been granted control of the domain iTunes.co.uk by the UK registry.
Nominet-appointed expert Claire Milne, a telecoms consultant, found that: "On the balance of probabilities, I find that the Domain Name, in the hands of the Respondent, is an Abusive Registration on the grounds of its use in a manner taking unfair advantage of, and being unfairly detrimental to, the Rights of the Complainant."
iTunes.co.uk's original owner, Benjamin Cohen, registered the web address before Apple announced its online service. He has vowed to appeal the decision, either through Nominet or at the High Court.
The web address was registered in November 2000 and redirected to a music search engine on CyberBritain. Computer maker Apple only launched its UK service in June last year.
Mr Cohen said: "I must admit that we were not expecting this decision by Nominet's appointed expert. Apple chose to launch the UK brand of 'itunes' within the UK with the knowledge that we had owned the name for three years before their US launch and four years before their launch within the UK."
Last month, Nominet ruled that Game.co.uk should be handed over by game consultant Gareth Sumpter to retailer Game. The case raised fears that large companies would be encouraged to sue smaller competitors online in order to obtain domain names potentially worth tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The full Nominet decision is not available yet. Earlier this month, the High Court threw out a case against Phone4U.co.uk by high-street mobile company Phones4U. The owner of Phone4U.co.uk, Abby Heykali, registered phone4u.co.uk in August 1999, long before he had heard of Phones 4u.
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