The Future of the Domain Name System - Up For Grabs?

The recent One in a Million Court of Appeal decision in the United Kingdom is another success for trade mark owners. The judgement left no one in any doubt that the English Courts will not tolerate blatant cybersquatting ie the registration of a famous trade mark or trading name as a domain name by a third party with no rights to use the name. As matters now stand, such activities will be regarded as passing off or trade mark infringement even if the name has not been used to trade in goods or services.

However, the One in a Million case was a blatant case where the names taken were very famous in the United Kingdom and the defendants were also based here. Matters become very much more complicated when the Defendants are based abroad, perhaps in a jurisdiction where the UK trade mark owner has no rights. We then begin to face the reality of an international Internet operating against a background of separate national laws and conflicting trade mark rights across different