Author's estate wins battle of Narnia domain name [UK]

A couple who bought a web domain name as a birthday present for their 11-year-old son have lost a battle with the estate of C.S. Lewis to keep it. Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith, from Edinburgh, paid £70 for the name www.narnia.mobi in September 2006 so that their son Comrie, who is a fan of C.S. Lewis, could use it as an e-mail address. The author's estate lodged a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which ruled yesterday that the domain name should be transferred.

Companies had a three-month period in 2006 to express interest in .mobi website names before they became more widely available. The couple bought the Narnia name, along with a number of others, including The Queen.mobi and USPresident.mobi, “just for fun”.

Domain name disputes focus partly on whether a “cybersquatter” is using the site for commercial gain and whether trademarks are involved. Mr Saville-Smith claimed yesterday that he had done nothing at all with the site and had not tried to make any money from it.

Aslan et al take on Edinburgh couple for Narnia.mobi [UK]

A major test case on internet names is due to be resolved – with the couple who bought narnia.mobi taking on the company that owns the rights to CS Lewis' world-famous books. CS Lewis (Pte) Ltd contests that Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith are essentially cybersquatting by owning the domain – which they say they bought for their 11-year-old son Comrie.

"We were saving it as a surprise for our little boy's birthday – to coincide with the release of the new Narnia film – so that he could have one of the coolest email addresses in the world!" poet Mrs Saville-Smith told the BBC.

The domain was bought back in 2006, when the new .mobi domains came in and the case is being investigated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). CS Lewis (Pte) Ltd has insisted that Mr and Mrs Saville-Smith have been using the domain in 'bad faith' to make money, a claim which the couple, from Edinburgh, deny.