Baker & McKenzie in Court Fight Over 11-Year-Old's Birthday Present?
Legal powerhouse Baker & McKenzie may have met its match: A threatened lawsuit over a domain name has pitted the Chicago-based international megafirm against an 11-year-old in Scotland who received it as a birthday present and his parents.
“Gillian Ferguson and Richard Saville-Smith bought the narnia.mobi e-mail domain name in 2006, so that their son, an avid fan of the Chronicles of Narnia books by author C.S. Lewis, might receive e-mails at that address direct to his mobile phone,” recounts the Lawyer. But then the company that holds the rights to the books from the deceased author’s estate realized it didn’t have the domain name and sought to get it.
Although offers of pro bono assistance reportedly are rolling in following news coverage of the legal battle, in which the law firm allegedly is claiming bad faith by the family and use of the domain name for commercial gain, Richard Saville-Smith says the situation is under control.
“Once you get over the initial shock of the complexity of the rules and the number of pages, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) rules are fairly clear—the burden of faith is on them,” he tells Legal Week. “We’re not being intimidated by the world’s leading law firm.”
