Samuel Jackson (no relation to the Hollywood star) of Hadleigh, Suffolk, has lost a court case surrounding nine BT domain names he registered in May 2013. Jackson had originally registered several domain names inspired by British Telecom and associated services, including one sharing the new BT Sport channel’s name.
Looking through the evidence submitted by both BT and Mr Jackson, Nominet ruled in favour of the telecoms provider after discovering that the BT domain names were registered on May 19th, days after BT had announced the launch of the new BT Sport channel. Even more importantly, “BT Sport” had already been registered as a trademark at the time of the announcement.
BT also submitted emails from January 2014 which demonstrated Jackson’s intent to sell the domains at profit because he “thought they would be a popular target” for other website owners. Based on the evidence submitted, Nominet adjudicator Carl Gardner had no hesitation finding in BT’s favour and ruled that Jackson must transfer ownership of the nine domains in question immediately.
Samuel Jackson’s story holds two lessons for individuals and businesses alike. Firstly, although sometimes slow to act, Nominet do take issues of cybersquatting (registering domain names in the hope of selling them to trademark owners at profit) and trademark infringement seriously. Secondly, businesses need to think ahead and register domain names at the same time as they file for trademarks to avoid similar (costly) legal disputes in future.
Leave a Reply
