Disney Gets Control of Star Wars Domain Names in the UK
The Walt Disney Company, which acquired Lucasfilms and the rights to the Star Wars franchise for more than $4.06 billion in 2012, is getting its ducks in a row for “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” which comes out December 18, 2015. As part of that process, it recently wrested back control of several Star Wars domain names in the United Kingdom from a third party who previously owned them.
Costume retailer ABSCISSA.COM Limited first purchased StarWars.co.uk back in 2003 after it alleged Lucasfilms let its own domain registration on the name lapse. When the shorter .uk domain format was introduced in 2014, owners of the .co.uk domains received first rights, and Abscissa soon snatched up several other names such as star-wars.uk and starwars.uk.
With its new movie’s release approaching, Disney asked Abscissa to turn over rights to these "Star Wars" domains, and after Abscissa refused, Disney filed a complaint with Nominet, the United Kingdom’s domain registration organization. After a three-month process, Nominet ruled in Disney’s favor in July 2015, granting them ownership of all of Abscissa’s domain names.
“Star Wars cannot sensibly refer to anyone else other than the complainant,” Nominet’s expert Steve Ormand wrote in his opinion. “It is highly likely in my view that any user searching for Star Wars and arriving at the respondent's website will have suffered initial interest, confusion and falsely inferred a commercial connection with the complainant.”
With a new movie coming out in several weeks and with renewed interest from long-time loyalists and average moviegoers alike, this probably won’t be the last time Disney seeks to protect its Star Wars domains and recently discovered intellectual property. But given the IP’s price tag, the company will probably go to great lengths to shut down any third-party attempt to take advantage of its value.
Sources: https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/07/09/starwars-nominet-decision.pdf http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33451674 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/09/lucasfilm_fights_over_starwarscouk_domain/
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