Radio Taxis, which takes bookings for London black cabs by
telephone and on its site at RadioTaxis.co.uk, has failed in an
attempt before the English High Courts to win the domain name
RadioTaxis.com. The disputed name is currently used by rival firm
Dial-A-Cab to take internet users to its own web site which is also
available at DialACab.com.
Radio Taxicabs (London) Limited has been trading under the name
Radio Taxis since the 1950s. In 1997, its rival registered the
disputed .com domain name. The following year, Radio Taxis
registered the .co.uk name. However, it was two years before the
company took action to get hold of the .com name.
Radio Taxis contended that the combination of the domain name
and the fact that it was being used by a rival site amounted to
passing off. This is a legal remedy which can arise where one
business represents itself as being associated with another in such
a way that it is calculated to cause confusion.
However, in a judgment published yesterday, the High Court noted
that Radio Taxis was unable to provide any evidence of actual
confusion in the two years during which the Dial-A-Cab web site had
been available using the RadioTaxis.com domain name.
The court did not consider that Dial-A-Cab had registered the
name with the intention of taking advantage of its rival's name,
reputation or goodwill, or of diverting its business. It was also
significant that, while the name "Radio Taxis" was well known
within the taxi trade, it had no such reputation amongst members of
the general public – and the court did not believe that confusion
within the trade was likely. Accordingly, the claim for the domain
name was dismissed.
