iTunes.co.uk owner to take Apple to High Court

The owner of the iTunes.co.uk domain, Benjamin Cohen, has applied to the High Court for a judicial review of his dispute with Apple over the address. Cohen registered the address on 7th November 2000, whereas Apple only had the trademark for "iTunes" published in the Trade Marks Journal on 6th December 2000. At the end of 2004, Apple accused Cohen of Cyber Squatting and demanded that he hand over the domain. Cohen said he registered the domain because he couldn't get tunes.co.uk.

Earlier this month, Domain Registrar Nominet ruled that the domain had to be handed over to Apple. Apple initially did offer Cohen $5,000 for the domain, but when Cohen suggested that the domain was worth at least $50,000, Apple did not negotiate further. "That's quite a miserly amount really," said Mr Cohen, "As soon as we said that [we wanted �50,000], that was it, their lawyers broke off communication."

He is determined to fight against the ruling. "We feel that the procedure that Nominet utilise to settle disputes is unfair and biased towards big business at the expense of legitimate small British companies" he said. "It's a matter of principle now. I paid for it [the domain name] and if Apple had contacted me nicely without lawyers we would have sold it to them."

Source:
Guardian

Written by: James Delahunty @ 28 Mar 2005 15:13

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8 comments

venomX05

Now folks, this is pretty sad indeed...I truly feel for Cohen, because he is getting shafted on this one. REGARDLESS if he is cyber-squatting, the domain should be his! Let's look at the facts:
Quote:Cohen registered the address on 7th November 2000, whereas Apple only had the trademark for "iTunes" published in the Trade Marks Journal on 6th December 2000. Ok, so he legally BOUGHT the name, if I am understanding this right. Am I right? This one just makes me laugh my @ss off!

Then we have this great fact:
Quote:At the end of 2004, Apple accused Cohen of Cyber Squatting and demanded that he hand over the domain. Cohen said he registered the domain because he couldn't get tunes.co.uk. Yeah...AND!!!! So what's your point...HELLO, 4 FRIGGIN' YEARS later. That is like someone taking another person to court for stealing a baseball card 20 years later. And the point being what here...that he hasn't bothered to do anything with the site, so the hell what! If ANYTHING, I totally respect Cohen, I would think he KNEW what was going to happen and wanted to stop Apple in it's tracks by not having them monopolize ever aspect of the web for selling tunes. Guy's pretty smart if you ask me, whatever his reason may be!
Quote:Earlier this month, Domain Registrar Nominet ruled that the domain had to be handed over to Apple. Apple initially did offer Cohen $5,000 for the domain, but when Cohen suggested that the domain was worth at least $50,000, Apple did not negotiate further. "That's quite a miserly amount really," said Mr Cohen, "As soon as we said that [we wanted �50,000], that was it, their lawyers broke off communication." Ok...now this is just plain pathetic. Honestly, they knew damn right well they could have paid $50K for the name, but then when he actually ASKED for it, they said no. Why...would on EARTH would they say no. What reason would they even have. It is not like he was asking for a million dollars, Cohen, just asked for the VALUE of it. And let's be honest, and this is directed to those in the UK, if you had a domain like that, wouldn't YOU ask for that, if not more, because you knew the VALUE of it was worth it.
Quote:"We feel that the procedure that Nominet utilise to settle disputes is unfair and biased towards big business at the expense of legitimate small British companies" he said. "It's a matter of principle now. I paid for it [the domain name] and if Apple had contacted me nicely without lawyers we would have sold it to them." See now, how ridiculous is this. I can't believe, they are not even going to TRY and resolve the situation. They pretty much kicked Cohen, RIGHT in the nuts on this one. He was their customer, and registered the name, then Apple comes in 4 FRIGGIN' years later and asks him for it. Wow! Must not have anything else better to do. This just goes to show you that there are NO ETHICS anymore. I remember a time, things were simpler, and the little guy actually got the respect they deserved, and lawyers would go AFTER big corporations, like the lawyers that go after unscrupulous companies, like Enron, WorldCom and the such. But here, they haven't even begun to back Cohen up, and in my eyes, however insignificant it may be, this is proving ultimately, that Apple is turning into another Microsoft. Yet, I don't see the Supreme Court saying a DAMN thing to them! But oh well, eventually, it will all come back around.

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29.3.2005 04:27 #1

Quadratic

It's pretty said that Cohen has to go through this. See, the true definition of cyber squatting is making a site that another company would want, WHILE it is existing. But yet, this guy had the domain name a month before the published "Itunes" name even existed, but they accuse this guy falsely.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is proof of a corrupt world.

29.3.2005 06:27 #2

sellsolid

I really cant see Apple winning this in court, but what really surprises me is Nominet, they started shittin their pants as soon as they found that they are dealing with Apple.

Apple has always been second best, they are not capable of competing with giant companies such as Microsoft, instead they are picking on an individual.

$5,000 is a JOKE! He asked for $50,000??? Lets face it guys anyone of us would have asked for more!!

iTune is crap anyway, we have windows media player, winamp to play music, we have have tons of free softwares to transfer musics to mp3 players, on top of all that WE HAVE P2P.

29.3.2005 07:01 #3

djgizmo

Again, I wish intelligent people would post more.

Cyber Squatting has a 2nd definnition to what has already been mentioned. Owning a website name that is a registered trademark is still infringing on that trade mark UNLESS, The site is used for sateric purposes.

A company has the right to ask for the domain and pay for it. The person that owns it though, especially is it is a trademarked name SHOULD NOT ask for money for it. Cohen should have just said, $5000 is not enough. When he asked for $50,000 he legally committed cyber squatting and thats when Apple lawyers knew they had him by the balls.

Unfortunately, unless Apple also registered its trademark in the UK or wherever Cohen had this hosted, Apple has only the right to that in the registered respected country.

29.3.2005 08:32 #4

pguyton

http://www.taubmansucks.com/index.html This is a very simular story that you might be familar with, it's about a series of lawsuits over a website. It's a good story.

29.3.2005 10:06 #5

venomX05

@pguyton

THAT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!

Well, in the beginning, it wasn't so funny...almost brought a tear to my eye! :P

But the end, was excellent, especially the part where Taubman got 3 years in prison for fixing the art prices.

Good show, pguyton!!! And thanks for the link, it was really cool to read!

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29.3.2005 11:13 #6

Quadratic

"Cyber Squatting has a 2nd definnition to what has already been mentioned. Owning a website name that is a registered trademark is still infringing on that trade mark UNLESS, The site is used for sateric purposes."

But no one has proof that it is his intent that he is cyber squatting, so case closed. No intent=no case.

30.3.2005 04:58 #7

venomX05

This isn't to you Quadratic...

But who cares if he is cyber squatting, the guy PAID for the name! Emphasis on the word: PAID! If he wanted to sit on that name till chicks hatched from it, who cares.

Honestly, for people to sit there and say it is a crime is ridiculous. I tell you what, if I had a domain name, that they wanted, they had better cough up some DAMN good money, because since I paid for it I should be able to do whatever I want.

Think about it...they ONLY want it because he got to it first, and if Apple was named some other company, do you honestly think they would come after him like this...NOPE!!! Because they wouldn't care. On TOP of this, it is blantanly apparent that APPLE is trying to pull a Microsoft and monopolize the online music industry. Now I will GUARANTEE you if say someone in like Africa had a name like the one Cohen had, they would definately come after that person. So, regardless, if somebody paid for something, you should be trying to take it away from them...because if you bought a car, and then the company came to you and said that they wanted it back, and offered you $5,000...but you paid $35,000...are you going to take it?

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30.3.2005 05:29 #8

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