It appears the decedents of C.S. Lewis will be taking a family to court over the use of the Narnia.mobi domain name. We get the following scoop from the Minotaur caves of Yahoo:
A Scottish family have become embroiled in an intellectual property dispute with the estate of the author C.S. Lewis after buying a Narnia Internet domain name for their 10-year-old son as a birthday present. Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith, who live in Edinburgh, paid 70 pounds ($140) to purchase the domain name Narnia.mobi from the internet registration company Fasthosts in 2006 so their son could have it as an email address.
They were asked to return the domain name to the C.S. Lewis company, owner of the author’s estate, but refused. The family then received a 128-page legal complaint filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland. “We’d been saving it as a surprise for our little boy’s birthday, to coincide with the release of the Narnia film,” said Mrs. Saville-Smith, referring to the British release of Walt Disney Co’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”
If this family is in fact saving the email address for their child, then I say let them have it. It isn’t the .com address so who cares. If the Lewis estate wanted the address they could have bought it years ago. Instead, they have decided to serve a family papers.
It could very well be that the family is using the child angle for sympathy and their entire story is bullshit; but I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
I personally don’ t see the logic in fighting this much over a .mobi address. I think the Lewis clan bringing this issue to court will do them more harm than good. With luck the entire case will be dropped, and fade from memory.
So much for the surprise email address.
Actlikeaman,bitethebullet call mp3 turkey 99487
Just Wanted To Tell You, Good Work!Really Great Job Guys, Great Website happy new year cards 29414
The father snapped up Narnia.mobi. TheQueen.mobi, ThePresident.mobi and about 30 others when the mobi domain came out 2 years ago. He has the domains “parked” at SEDO making ad click revenue off them – including Narnia related adverts. Who buys a present for their kid and waits two years to give it to them? The father is a domain speculator using his kid for sympathy.
The wierd thing is, the family bouht the address 2 years ago, why on earth wait 2 years to give your son an address?? its smell’s of bullcrap to me.
In the main story in the papers they also state they bought thequeen.mobi and uspresident.mobi
In my opinion they are looking for money. it makes no sense to me to keep a crappy present for 2 years before giving it to a child.
The rooster speaks the truth!
I’m still trying to figure out how the “ancestors” of C.S. Lewis are able to sue these people from beyond the grave. Now, if it were his “decedents”, it would be a little easier to understand…
the .mobi can’t be all that new since they registered the domain in 2006…. so they can save it for a boy’s birthday 2 years later?
The issue here isn’t that they wanted the name (which might be true) but legally you cant do NOTHING with a domain name and sit on it that long. Its called cybersquatting and they likely have a strong case against them.
If they did ANYTHING with it at all they would be screwed. If you register the domain name (and use it) its yours.
.mobi addresses are the new hot thing, everyone is buying them up. a good domain name can be worth a lot of money downt he road if you get it quick and use it.
IMO – the father saw an opportunity to make money, but he knows that the domain should rightfully belong to the lewis family unless it was proved he was actually using it. from what i understand, that is the trick to retaining ownership to a disputed name – proving you have a good reason to own the domain.