Domain name dispute | DFA Law Northampton Solicitors News

MCE Insurance Wins Rights to Domain Name

MCE Insurance has won a legal battle to have a domain name registered in Australia, transferred to them.  MCE have been in business since 1975, they have used the MCE Insurance brand name since 1994.  The Rushden based company instructed DFA Law to take on their case and are delighted with the results.

Clare Towers of DFA Law was very pleased to provide advice and assistance to MCE Insurance in connection with their complaint to Nominet and added, “The registrant of the domain name www.mceinsurance.co.uk had a history of registering domain names with well established nationwide companies, including well known building societies and insurance companies.  A vast amount of evidence was put forward to Nominet to demonstrate MCE ‘rights’ in respect of the domain name.  We are very pleased with the outcome for our clients.”

Julian Edwards, MCE Director said, “MCE Insurance is the UK’s leading provider of motorcycle insurance with 13% of the UK market.  Our strong trusted brand is used to generate 42% of our income on-line through www.mceinsurance.com, however we discovered another site, www.mceinsurance.co.uk passing itself off as ourselves resulting in loss of income.  DFA Law were excellent, they understood our problem, proposed the resolve and executed in-line with our deadlines, with the entire process taking under three months.”

In order to convince Nominet’s Expert adjudicator that the offending domain name should be transferred, it was necessary to show that MCE had ‘rights’ in respect of a name or trade mark the same or similar to the offending domain name.  It was also necessary to show that the offending domain name was an abusive registration.