WIPO Orders Narnia Domain Transfer, Makes 11-Year-Old Cry

A Narnia-like battle has erupted over a domain name that one party argues will leave an 11-year-old child without a birthday present thanks to greedy, powerful rights-holders. Control of the domain, narnia.mobi, was taken away from its original registrant this week by the World Intellectual Property Organization and awarded to the estate of C.S. Lewis, author of the popular “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, a decision that the original registrant is referring to as “scandalously one-sided.”

Scotland natives Richard Saville-Smith and his wife, Gillian, originally registered naria.mobi in September of 2006, not long after the “sunrise period” for trademark owners to register .mobi domains had closed. Allegedly, they registered the domain in order to give their then nine-year-old son–a huge Narnia fan–the gift of an e-mail address with “narnia” in it for his 11th birthday.

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