MySpace has won a dispute over the domain name myspace.co.uk despite it being registered six years before MySpace was founded. The reason, as outlined in Out-Law.com, is the website for myspace.co.uk “led to a ‘parked’ page with adverts for social networking sites including MySpace was taken to be evidence of an abusive registration and the domain name was given to MySpace.”
Initially the domain name holder, Total Web Solutions (TWS) of Stockport, “had registered myspace.co.uk in 1997 and used the address to offer mini websites to subscribers and email services. It said that though it no longer offers the mini websites it still provides email services to 18 subscribers at the address.
“The arbitrator found, though, that it had changed the way that it used the address, subscribing to a system which put keyword-related adverts on to the page. Those ads related to MySpace.com and to social networking, meaning that TWS was profiting unfairly from its association with MySpace.”
For these reasons, the arbitrator ruled that the domain name should be transferred to MySpace.
To read the full Out-Law.com article, see out-law.com/page-8834 or www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/29/myspace_wins_domain/