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Apple Threatens iTunes.co.uk Owner

Posted by timothy on from the all-wide-eyed-innocence dept.

derxob writes "According to The Register, Apple has accused Benjamin Cohen, the 'dotcom millionare' of being a 'cybersquatter.' He registered ITunes.co.uk on Nov. 7 2000, and Apple trademarked ITunes on Dec. 8, 2000. They have taken him to the UK registry Nominet and are demanding that he give up the domain."

5 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. So which is worse? by Phidoux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cybersquatting or intimidation?

    --
    Free Firefox news reader.
  2. Not a squatter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA, he registered it before Apple even thought about creating iTunes and he did use it to redirect to his search engine.

  3. Doesn't really matter, does it? by Trillan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I checked this out while it was still news, before Slashdot ran the story. Then, the site featured a giant picture of the iPod front and center with "GET AN IPOD FREE!" Yup, another stupid scam page.

    No, this guy is not innocent. Best case is that this guy is a lying weasel of a spammer who latched on to the domain name out of thousands. Worst case is he heard a rumor. Either way, once iTunes was publicly announced he clearly violated trademark law in deliberately causing confusion amongst consumers about what the website represented.

    This guy is abusing Apple's trademark to harvest email addresses. Whether or not he got there before Apple registered the site is irrelevant because it *is* registered and he does not have a legitimate use for the name.

    Also, Apple had been working on iTunes for some time before the registration date. Do you think a new product magically appears in a month? (Even thought it was based on SoundJam, it still represented many changes.)

    What has happened is that the guy has realized he will lose, so he went crying to the media and changed the site a little so it isn't so clear a violation. Morons like you ate it up. In a few days, after he think he's milked the free publicity as much as he can risk, he'll sell out to Apple.

    I hope he doesn't -- Apple would end up with his testicles in a jar. But he will. And he'll probably use the opportunity to cry more tears to the media.

  4. Summary Judgement by The+Dodger · · Score: 5, Insightful
    A few observations:
    • The site that iTunes.co.uk points to is called QuickQuid.com. Cohen doesn't appear to have invested anything in building a business around the iTunes name.
    • QuickQuid.com appears to be some kind of marketing/promotional business - i.e. they persuade people to sign up with them, in order to receive discounts, special offers, etc. In addition, QuickQuid.com displays adverts - presumably the more times those adverts are viewed/clicked on, the more advertising revenue QuickQuid.com receives. Hence, the more traffic to their site, the more people are likely to sign up and, hence, the more money the company will make.
    • Apple own the iTunes trademark and have invested a lot of money in building a business around that name.
    • The vast, vast majority of people who go to www.itunes.co.uk will do so in the expectation of finding the Apple iTunes service.
    Now, it seems to me that there are two reasons the itunes.co.uk domain is of value to Cohen/QuickQuid.com:
    1. It's a catchy name and would have been a good name for a company doing something related to music and the Internet. However, it appears that Cohen failed to register itunes as a trademark and, now that Apple have done so, he almost certainly can't. So, he's missed out on realising that potential.
    2. It brings traffic to the QuickQuid.com site because of people who are trying to reach Apple's iTunes service in the UK.
    In other words, the domain would have hardly any value if it wasn't for the fact that Apple have spent millions promoting iTunes. Anyone who thinks that Apple should pay a lot of money for the domain because it's "valuable" is essentially saying that Apple should have to pay for something which is only valuable because of money Apple have invested in their trademark. That doesn't seem just to me.

    By capturing traffic to itunes.co.uk, QuickQuid.com is benefitting directly from Apple's marketing of iTunes - in essence, it's a parasite on Apple's marketing budget.

    Finally, let's not forget that Apple have a duty to protect their trademark.

    So, my judgement is as follows:

    1. Cohen should hand the itunes.co.uk domain over to Apple.
    2. Apple should pay Cohen £1,500 (approx $2,500) for costs involved in transferring the domain.
    3. My fee shall be apportioned as follows: Cohen shall pay 1% (£1,000) and Apple shal pay the other 99% (£99,000).
    4. The Clerk of the Court (aka CmdrTaco) shall book me on a six-week Caribbean cruise.
    Case dismissed.


    D.
    ..is for Djudge.

  5. Common sense by franksp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The world would a much better place if people just used common sense. I went to the site and there's no reason why it should be called 'iTunes'. As a matter of fact, it is redirected to quickquid.com. In my humble opnion, the guy should just give/sell the domain to apple, which would make a lot more sense the itunes.co.uk being the iTunes site.

    A good example of this is Kevin Karpenske, who donated the firefox.com domain to the mozilla foundation.