Legal Research

EMusic hit by domain chill in Canada

By scott

Online music company EMusic suffered a set back this week as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) rejected their attempt to get the domain emusic.ca transferred to them.

Under CIRA policy a complainant must show that there was a likelihood of confusion between the domain and the complaints registered trademark(s); that the domain owner has no legitimate business interest in the domain; and that the domain has been registered in bad faith. Whilst CIRA ruled that EMusic would succeed on the first two points, it ruled that it had failed to demonstrate that the domain had been registered in bad faith.

CIRA ruled that the Domain was registered in 2001 at a time when the EMusic trademark had not been granted, and was therefore a generic expression that belonged to anyone. They added that the registrant was not a competitor of EMusic’s and had never during the period of ownership of the domain ever approached EMusic to sell the domain - this action was brought only after the registrant refused an approach from EMusic to sell the domain for $500.

I do find domain name disputes interesting. More often than not the big companies win and anyone who is pitted against them is described as a cybersquatter (not always fairly in my view). In this case, the registrant has never really used the site for anything during the time he has operated it - although since the complaint it has been an ecommerce news page. However, despite the fact I am sceptical at anyone who either permanently parks or fails to use domains, I think this decision is the correct one. I fully expect EMusic to now make a far more attractive offer for the domain (frankly I’d have told them what to do with an offer of $500 too, and I speak here as a fan and regular user of EMusic’s service).

Full post as published by Information Overload on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).