The (current) owner of itunes.co.uk is appealing Nominet’s decision that forces him to hand the domain name over to Apple. And with good cause. As owner Benjamin Cohen said in a statement, “I must admit that we were not expecting the decision by Nominet’s appointed expert. Apple chose to launch the UK brand of “itunes” within the UK with the knowledge that we had owned the name for three years before their USA launch and four years before their launch within the UK.”
I’m personally willing to side with big companies in domain name disputes, especially in obvious cases (like registering FordMustang.com or the like). Unless we aren’t getting the entire story, however, the itunes.co.uk case is very different. Apple made a mistake, and they’re using the courts to wiggle their way out.
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