Scottish family lose Narnia case

Posted on 25 Jul 2008 at 18:35

A Scottish schoolboy has lost the case to keep hold of the domain name given to him for his birthday. 11-year-old Comrie Saville-Smith was given www.narnia.mobi by his father, only for it to be seized by the estate of CS Lewis.

Comrie's father Richard claimed he did not buy the domain name with a view to make money from it. However, the UN's independent arbitrator ruled that the family "registered and is using the disputed domain name in bad faith", after it was found that the boy's father went on to register other Narnia-linked sites, such as freenarnia.mobi, after the case was filed.

The Scottish family bought the domain in 2006 for £70. Their unwillingness to accept offers from the CS Lewis estate to buy back the site prompted its estate's lawyers to file the complaint.

An official at the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva said the dispute system allows for an appeal to be filed in a normal court within 10 days after an arbitrator's ruling.

If the family choose to appeal, the case could be heard in the US, where the internet registrar for .mobi is based.

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota

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