Apple wins itunes.co.uk

A small British business involved in a legal battle with Apple is considering taking its case to the High Court after being ordered to , according to The Times Online: "Benjamin Cohen, the chief executive of CyberBritain Holdings, denies he is a 'cyber squatter' and claims he properly registered the domain name a month before Apple's application for a British trademark for iTunes was made public. However, Nominet, the UK internet registry, today found that Mr Cohen had made an 'abusive registration' and ruled that the domain name should be transferred to Apple."

According to the report, the domain name registrar Nominet can force transfer of domain names if "the respondent is using the domain name in a way which has confused people or businesses into believing that the domain name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the complainant".



Cohen claims that he was unware of Apple's trademark filing, which he says was kept completely confidential until a month after he registered the domain. Pending the appeal, the itunes.co.uk domain will continue to be forwarded to the Napster section of QuickQuid.com, a shopping website owned by CyberBritain Holdings. The website appears to have various commission-based relationships with internet retailers and is offering £7.50 as an incentive for signing up with the site and registering for Napster.

by MacNN Staff