Two sides to every story

The Chronicle of Domain Names

by Lizzie Houghton

What's in a name? In business, it depends on how much you are willing to pay. Richard Saville-Smith paid £70 for the domain name Narnia.mobi. Now C.S. Lewis Ltd, the company which controls the copyright to C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, is suing him for taking the Narnia name 'in bad faith'.

Mr. Saville-Smith bought the domain name as a birthday present for his 11-year-old son, who is a Narnia fanatic. A domain name is the URL to a web site, so in the case of Narnia.mobi it would be www.narnia.mobi, which is the suffix used for sites which can be viewed on mobile phones.

Usually, companies make sure they hold onto all the names relating to their product. In this case, it seems C.S. Lewis Ltd forgot to buy Narnia.mobi so Mr. Saville-Smith was legally allowed to buy it.

"We were amazed the domain name was still free and snapped it up for Comrie, who is a big fan of the Narnia books," Mr. Saville-Smith told The Guardian. "The people from C.S. Lewis must have realised they missed it, and now they want it back. They are trying to bully us into handing over our little boy's present."

C.S. Lewis Ltd will take their case to the World Intellectual Property Organisation's HQ, if they do not get Mr Saville-Smith to give their name back.

 
The original theatre poster for Nania

When someone buys up a domain name which has something to do with a popular business or celebrity and then tries to sell the domain back, it is known as 'cyber-squatting.'

Who owns a name isn't just for cyberspace either. This week it was revealed that a postman in Cardiff has been making thousands by buying up the rights to company names. Duncan McDonald looks for new or merging companies, finds out what their new name will be and then snaps it up for himself for just £20. Most companies find it easier to pay him to give the name up instead of taking legal action.

Chris Evans and Bob Geldof have both had their company names bought up by Mr. McDonald. Bob Geldof told The Sunday Times that he could no longer remember the incident but that "part of me is chuckling at his brass neck, but at the same time if you were a small company, it would be an impediment."
Look at the situations from different points of view. Would you champion the opportunist individual making a few thousand against the large company making millions? What if you were a small company and your very livelihood was threatened by someone buying up your company or products' names? Explore the concept of what is in a name when it comes to business and the moral issues around 'intellectual property'.
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