When Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith bought the domain name www.Narnia.mobi, they meant it as a birthday present for their son Comrie, a eleven-year-old Narnia fan. The Edinburgh, Scotland couple never expected that their present would lead to a major court case against C.S. Lewis (Pte.) Ltd., the Narnia author’s estate.
After purchasing the domain name, the couple received a complaint from the estate, claiming that they wished to use it for their own purposes and that, legally, it was theirs to use. Soon, the Saville-Smiths were fighting for the domain name in court.
The C.S. Lewis estate hired lawyers Baker & McKenzie for the case against the couple. Baker & McKenzie charged the Saville-Smiths with using the domain name in “bad faith,” as a means to make a profit. The couple deny this claim and insist that they purchased Narnia.mobi for their son’s personal e-mail address.
The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) did not agree when they ruled against the Saville-Smiths. Gillian Saville-Smith had this to say about the ruling:
“They had to prove that we had made a bad faith purchase, that we had been using it to make money. We provided very clear statements from the internet registration company saying that we had not tried to make any money and yet somehow it has just simply ignored the evidence. We have not done anything illegal or wrong, we were perfectly entitled to have this domain name.”
