Legal News

In Domain Name Flap, U.N. Orders Boy Back Through Narnia?s Wardrobe

By Dan Slater

Comrie Saville-Smith, an 11-year-old Scottish boy received from his parents what must’ve been an exciting birthday present: the domain name www.narnia.mobi. It cost the Saville-Smiths about $140.

Now, in a plot-line that’s perhaps worthy of a C.S. Lewis novel, the boy must relinquish the domain name to the estate of the late Lewis (pictured), author of the “Chronicle of Narnia” series. On Wednesday, the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, ordered the transfer of the site.

“We are shocked by the decision,” Gillian, the mother of Comrie, told the Scotsman. “We put up a spirited fight because we wanted to prove that you do not have to hand something over just because someone richer and more powerful tells you to do so.”

The C.S. Lewis estate’s lawyers at Baker & McKenzie filed the complaint with WIPO in May after the Saville-Smiths rejected offers to buy back the site. The estate’s lawyers argued that Comrie’s father, Richard, who registered other Narnia-linked sites like freenarnia.mobi after the case was filed, had not acted in full honesty. The arbitrator ruled that Saville-Smith “registered and is using the disputed domain name in bad faith,” and said he was not convinced Saville-Smith had not aimed to make money from narnia.mobi by allowing it to be linked to commercial sites. Saville-Smith denied this.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).