A panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has
ruled in favour of Sony and Nintendo in domain name disputes that
concerned infringements of their respective trade marks.
Nintendo's US division filed a complaint against a US citizen
who registered and used the domain name i-nintendo.com. The name’s
owner argued that Nintendo was a general term for video games, and
that the name was to be used for an on-line game store that would
sell Nintendo products. He also insisted that there was no
intention to confuse consumers, and that he had posted on his site
the disclaimer, “Not an official Nintendo website.”
The WIPO panel disagreed with his arguments, ruling in favour of
Nintendo and stating that the name’s registration was “dishonest
behaviour brought on by malicious intent.”
Sony’s US division filed successful complaints against two South
Korean individuals using the word Sony in various domain names,
such as worldsony.com and sony.net. No defences were lodged with
the WIPO panel.
