"Palpable nonsense" backfires for owner of Citigroup.co.uk
A former intellectual property lawyer who grabbed citigroup.co.uk on the very day in 1998 when it was announced that two financial giants were merging to form Citigroup Inc. has been ordered to transfer the domain name and could face substantial damages.
Jim Davies is the Managing Director of Global Projects Management, an IT security firm based in London that targets its services at law firms. He lost his High Court battle this week.
Travelers Group and Citigroup announced their $140 billion mega-merger on 6th April 1998. But in what seems like a remarkable oversight, neither firm had registered either citigroup.co.uk or citigroup.com. Jim Davies registered citigroup.co.uk later the same day. He tried for citigroup.com the following day – but that had just been snapped up by a US opportunist, Peter Tarquinio.
Citigroup's US lawyers, Skadden Arps, sued Tarquinio for trade mark infringement and dilution. They won the case, getting citigroup.com transferred. Davies tried a different tactic in his attempt to keep the .co.uk name: he sued Citigroup before it sued him.
posted by Fergie @ 10/20/2005 08:13:00 AM
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