US Companies do not Have Exclusive Rights to .Com Domains
Press Release - London 27 April 2001
The World Intellectual Property Organisation ("WIPO") today issued a judgement preventing the transfer of the domain name "kcts.com" to Seattle based KCTS Television.
KCTS Television claimed that the owners of the disputed domain name, small Greenford based Get On The Web Limited, had no good reason to register it and "that it is reasonable to conclude that most Internet users associate the .COM gTLD with U.S. based markets and companies".
WIPO disagreed and despite KCTS claiming that it is well-known and famous in the USA and in Europe, it refused to transfer the disputed domain name to KCTS. KCTS is the fourth largest public TV station in the USA and Canada and Bill Gates' private Foundation recently donated $11 million to it.
Specialist law firm Sprecher Grier Halberstam (who represented Get On The Web Limited) said that the bullish approach taken by KCTS was typical of a company which realised it had failed to take simple steps to protect its name, such as registering the .com gTLD or a trade mark for its business name in the UK or Europe. SGH said that the approach taken by KCTS probably did not assist it and that WIPO may have taken exception to the assumption of absolute rights to the .com domain taken by KCTS.
Background
Get On The Web Limited is a small company based in Greenford which designs and operates informational websites particularly relating to tourism, sports and leisure. Its kcts.com site is dedicated to tourist information in Kensington & Chelsea.
SPRECHER GRIER HALBERSTAM LLP
Sprecher Grier Halberstam specialise in e-commerce and domain name disputes.
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