Viacom International Inc, the global entertainment company which runs the cable music station MTV, has lost its fight to have Taiwanese firm Elitist Technologies transfer the domain name mtv.com.sg to it.
Viacom claims that Elitist had no rights over the name, had used it in bad faith and had profited from it. In the complaint filed with the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Service, Viacom’s lawyer stated that "the name ‘MTV’ is not a common noun universally used all over society" and as such, Elitist had no rights over the domain name. Furthermore, it noted that the domain name bore no resemblance to Elitist’s name as well as business, since the company sells office equipment. As an example of bad faith, Viacom’s lawyer pointed out that the Taiwanese company had acquired the domain name with the intention of selling it and was prepared to sell it to Viacom for US$200,000 (S$36,281). Currently, Viacom already operates the websites www.mtvasia.com and www.mtv-china.com.
