MySpace wrestles away ‘parked’ domain name
MySpace has won the right to take control of domain name, myspace.co.uk, despite only coming into existence years after the moniker was founded.
The address was initially registered by Total Web Solutions (TWS) of Stockport in 1997, but regulators ruled that the page was now being ‘parked’ and decided to award it to the social network.
TWS was said to have originally used the address to offer mini websites to subscribers and email services, but had recently ‘parked’ it and was benefiting from the popularity of the social network and web-users seeking to locate it.
UK domain registry Nominet ruled that the site was now being used for pay per click gains, with keyword-related adverts placed on the page that related to MySpace and other social media sites.
The address has been passed to the social network, by virtue of regulators agreeing that TWS had adapted the original purpose of the page and was unfairly benefiting from its unintended association with MySpace.
TWS complained: "The fact that the adverts shown in 2004 did not include adverts associated with the Complainant proves that the Complainant was not well known and was not known to the Respondent when it started using the site for sponsored pay per click links."
