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ARTICLE · 20 SEPTEMBER 2006

Lord Of Your Domain?

Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers
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In these booming Internet days, domain names are becoming increasingly important. Recent domain name auctions have seen bids in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for key generic domains. A current domain name dispute provides an important lesson for all domain name holders about ensuring that they retain what they have paid for.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Chris Bevitt
Chris Bevitt
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In these booming Internet days, domain names are becoming increasingly important. Recent domain name auctions have seen bids in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for key generic domains. A current domain name dispute provides an important lesson for all domain name holders about ensuring that they retain what they have paid for.

What Happened?

This particular dispute involves a company which was established a few years ago. Before the company was established, a future shareholder who was closely involved in establishing the company registered the proposed company name as a domain name. This was a sensible course to take to prevent any opportunistic domain name registrations by those who monitor new company registrations and snap up the corresponding domain with a view to offering it to the new company, for a fee of course.

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