The Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled that a domain name is
personal property and a business asset located in Ontario.
Prior to this decision, there was little guidance in Canadian law
on the issue of whether a domain name constitutes property.
The decision rendered on Aug 5 2011, involved a dispute between
Tucows.com Co. and Renner S.A., about Tucow's right to keep the
domain name "renner.com" in the face of Renner's
registered trade-mark "Renner". Tucows, a
technology corporation located in Toronto Ontario, had purchased
the domain name renner.com from a third party in 2006. The
domain name is registered with the internationally recognized
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Renner, a subsidiary of a leading US retailer JCPenney, owns the
trade-mark "Renner" in Brazil and other
countries.
