Palm leans on ‘cybersquatter’ who predicts future

Not a case of first-come first-served

By Linda Harrison, 22nd November 2000

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Palm has got heavy-handed in a domain name spat with one of its users.

The dispute stems from the mighty California outfit's announcement earlier this month to start a portal launch called MyPalm. Nothing wrong with that.

Only problem for Palm is that execs decided on the name for the MyPalm portal without bothering to buy the TLD first. When they checked, they found Mypalm.com was already registered to a UK company, Intanet Communications.

Shortly after the announcement Mypalm.com owner Dominic Hulewicz says he received a Cease and Desist order from the US company, branding him a cybersquatter and demanding he surrender the URL at once. The fact that he had registered the name a year before he could have known about Palm's plans (unless he was psychic) didn't worry the untouchable Palm.

"I have never attempted to sell my domain name or solicit any offers for it, so I am stunned that I should be accused of being a cybersquatter when I registered my name 11 months before Palm
announced their portal name," he told The Register.

Hulewicz, who lives in Windsor and uses the domain as an e-mail address for his Palm PDA, says he plans to defend himself. But obviously he is not as big and rich and powerful as Palm, so could fall victim to the courts.

Celebs such as Madonna, Sade and French actress Isabelle Adjani have all won their domains from "cybersquatters" recently via WIPO, even if the original owners said they weren't using them to profit from the artists.

Palm was unavailable for comment. ®