A controversial domain name registrant is annoying some of
Australia's largest companies by registering their domain names in
obscure country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) and then attempting to
sell the domain names to them at vastly inflated prices.
Dominic Holland has been found attempting to sell the domain names
qant.as and westp.ac, Australia's national airline and one of
Australia's largest banks respectively, to the respective companies. .AS
is the ccTLD for American Samoa while .AC is the ccTLD for the
Ascension Island.
Other domain names he appears to have registered include japanpo.st,
wesfarme.rs, virg.in and 2day.fm.
Holland claimed two weeks ago that bidding on the qant.as domain name
started at $1 million and finished at $1.35m according to a report in
The Australian.
Both Qantas and its main Australian competitor Virgin Blue have denied
participating in the auction. Qantas have not commented on whether they
will take legal action, but Holland claims they have no legal recourse.
"A company or entity may seek legally the rights to a domain name in a
similar fashion as that of trademark law. This means that a domain name
must be proven to be, include or contain a trademark for which may
attract consumers or viewers through utilising a known trademark.
"However, this does not extend to the extension of a domain name, and
only applies to the preceding letters.
"In this case Qantas would have to prove that consumers would be drawn
to that domain because of the use of 'Qant'. However, as they have at no
point advertised, portrayed or conducted themselves with 'Qant' they
hold no legal rights to the domain. The extension .as or any extension
is not taken into consideration as legally it is considered an indicator
of domain type or location," Holland told The Australian.
Westpac has taken a similar line as Qantas and has not expressed any
interest in purchasing the domain name from Holland. But their legal
team has sent a trademark claim on the domain name, which Holland has
described as "bogus".
At the time of the article in The Australian the qant.as domain name
redirected to the Virgin Blue website, but now it is parked with
information on other domain names Holland has registered.
For more information on the above stories, see:
- Follow us on :
