Region: France

The Douai Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court ruling that extended first-come, first-served trademark protection to the domain name 'boistropicaux.com'. The appellate court therefore refused to transfer the disputed domain name 'bois-tropicaux.com' to the complainant.

22 January 2003

By allowing newly created companies to pre-register for 15 days a domain name identical to their corporate name, trade name or trademark, the French Association for Cooperation in Internet Naming has taken a step to minimize the risk of domain name disputes.

21 November 2002

The Paris High Court is confused about the treatment of protest sites. In one case, involving Areva, it ruled that the reproduction of a trademark along with additional elements does not amount to trademark infringement under the EU Trademark Directive. A few weeks earlier, it had held that replacing 'S' with '$' in the ESSO trademark did amount to infringement.

02 October 2002

France has had its first conflict involving a domain name that was not registered as a trademark, nor used for the identification of a person, product or service. The outcome, giving the plaintiff a "right of occupation" in the name, has been much criticized.

25 October 2001

A company that promotes technology projects and is the registered ownerof the trademark LEONARDO has lost its case against a cultural association thatused 'Leonardo' in its URL.

03 July 2001

A recent case before the Paris Court of Appeals involving subsidiaries of Virgin Inc illustrates the conditions that must be met to establish a case of cybersquatting.

19 June 2001

A recent example of cybersquatting in France involved a web site createdto denounce the social policy of Danone. The web master was not convicted forusing the company's trade name.

05 June 2001