On Friday, a regional court in Hamburg dismissed a case brought
against the web site Lastminute.com. The action had been brought by
German travel company L’tur which argued that Lastminute.com did
not have the right to use its domain name.
L’tur based its argument on the fact that in Germany, the phrase
“last minute” is used to refer to any cheap travel deal booked two
weeks before it is taken. Since it is a widely used generic term,
L’tur argued its use by Lastminute.com may cause users to think
that such offers were only available at that site.
The court concluded that its use would not detrimentally affect
competitors and that there was no law against the use of generic
terms as domain names in Germany. Lastminute.com responded to this
decision by maintaining that, because it did not restrict internet
use, it would ultimately benefit users. Stephen Uhrenbacher, head
of Lastminute.com in Northern Europe stated that “the court’s
decision brings clarity to the whole German internet economy”.
