The Sun wrestles back porn domain

News International has won assurances it will be handed the domain ukpage3.com after the monster media group claimed ths site's owners had walked all over its trademark, writes Andrew Smith.

UKPage3.com is run by Universe Models, a photographic studio and model agency.

The Sun, which is owned by News International, is famous for its topless pictures of young women on page 3 of its newspaper.

It even runs its own boob site, page3.com, and claimed the Universe Models'effort was just too close for legal comfort.

News International intellectual property director, Dominic Young said: "Page 3 is trademarked. If you saw that site (UKpage3.com) you'd think of The Sun. That's passing off."

"The domain is now pointing at nothing, the site behind the domain has been taken down and we have been promised there will be no use of our good name and trademarks by the same people in the future," said Young.

A spokesman for the agency, Phil Barry, claimed that UKPage3.com was the official site of the Daily Sport and said there was no intention to associate it with The Sun. The Sport denied this claim.

He said the phrase "page 3" was a general term referring to glamour photography and had no particular association with The Sun.

Last week, telephone services watchdog, ICSTIS, began investigating UKpage3.com for ripping off customers who downloaded its dialler software. ®

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