The Irish discount airline Ryanair Holdings PLC has lost its battle against a former disgruntled customer who registered the domain name ryanaircampaign.org. Michael Coulston of London, the former disgruntled customer, had used the domain name to criticise Ryanair's business practices.
The Irish carrier complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization that the domain name infringed on its trademarks and should therefore be transferred into Ryanair's possession.
But a WIPO panel said there was no evidence that Coulston, who runs a private online campaign aimed at informing Ryanair customers of ways in which they can complain to the company about its service, was using the domain name in bad faith.
In another previous domain name dispute with Coulston, Ryanair had been successful in wrestling the domain name ryanair.org.uk by lodging a complaint with Nominet UK (an organization responsible for Web domains ending in the .UK suffix).
Source [Business Week]
