In September of 2006 Richard Saville-Smith paid 70 pounds for the domain Narnia.mobi. He hoped to save the domain until the release of the second Narnia film. Then he would give it to his son as a birthday present and let his use it for his email. Now, some two weeks before the release of Prince Caspian in Great Brittan Saville-Smith has been served with a 128-page order to release the domain from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
It seems that the company that owns the rights to the works of C S Lewis has decided that after letting the Narnia.mobi domain expire, sit around for three months in the grace period, and then be in the possession of an Edinburgh father for a year and a half they want it back. Apparently the United Nations organization, WIPO, agrees and has felt pressure from a New York firm to try and snatch it back.
This is Ridiculous
Looking at the face value of this, it seems to be Big business and the UN pushing the little guy around. You may add in the fact that Saville-Smith owns 78 domains and the page is parked with some click through ads, but it still seems like an unjust prosecution of an individual. There is no bad faith in action. He doesn’t make any money off the ads, they are on a parking page provided by Sedo (the hosting company). Cybersquatting laws were not intended to squelch free speech and allow lazy trademark holders to stomp all over people.
1 response so far ↓
1 Reed // Jun 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Unfortunately, it’s very hard to have a good cybersquat these days. I can see the argument that the rights-holding company has in wanting to protect all of it’s public representation and/or their right to own it. And if there is an argument in the area of intellectual property it is very expensive to see it through in court. Little guy has no chance. He will have to give up the domain and be out 20 bucks. Unless perhaps he thought up the word Narnia before C.S Lewis was born…
Leave a Comment