Who's suing who

Virgin, Ladbrokes, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's have together won a landmark legal action against a company which registered over 100 domain names on the internet using some of the biggest names in British business, and then offered them for sale.

Dinah Nissen, a partner with Harbottle & Lewis, the solicitors representing Richard Branson's Virgin group, says the court victory over the One in a Million company is "the first of its kind in the UK. This will send out a message to people involved in this kind of activity that the courts won't take kindly to it".

The two defendants, Richard Conway and Julian Nicholson, registered a series of famous names as domains on the internet and then offered some of them for sale. The domains registered included included virgin.org and BT.org. Mr Conway wrote to Burger King offering to sell it the domain burgerking.co.uk for pounds 25,000.

The four plaintiffs were trying to stop the duo from doing so by alleging trademark infringement and passing off. The defendants have won the right to appeal, and the case will probably be heard this spring, but Ms Nissen is confident the decision will be upheld.

"There are those that argue that the internet should be a `free for all' ... but where an action infringes someone else's rights [the law must apply]," she said.

Domain names do not just act as addresses, but also have a trademark purpose, she says. In other words, it is perfectly reasonable that BMW, for the sake of argument, would want a domain name such as bmw.com rather than abc.com.

Ms Nissen sees such legal arguments about the internet growing as its influence over our lives grows, through advertising and the like. The US government this week proposed to introduce a range of new suffixes to domain names to ease congestion on the Internet, and this will only produce new challenges to brand owners, she says.

While the case was being heard in front of Jonathan Sumption QC, sitting as a deputy judge in the High Court, the One in a Million company registered harbottle.com as a domain name. Ms Nissen was philosophical about the move; she will not be taking action over it.

I've just come across a copy of a writ lodged by "Phil Collins Limited" against two American musicians, Rahmlee Michael Davis and Louis Satterfield. The writ defines the plaintiff as "a company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, and is and was at all times entitled to the recording services of the popular musician Phil Collins". Makes a change from "bald rocker", I suppose.

Anyway, the ex-drummer for Genesis is claiming that he overpaid royalties to these two backing musicians relating to his 1990 world tour. Mr Collins is claiming repayment of US$392,965.98 from each of them, plus interest.

Mr Collins claims that under an agreement dated 6 December 1989 the duo were due royalties on a record he subsequently released of the live show, but only on the condition that they had played on all 15 of the live recordings. In fact there had been a mistake, and they had each played on only five recordings.

Royal & Sun Alliance Trust Company together with 20 individual investors has lodged a writ against Healey & Baker, the surveyors, and 22 other parties over the valuation the surveyors put on a business park in 1992.

The writ claims that Healey & Baker overvalued the property, Units 1- 17 Sextant Park, Medway City Estate, Rochester Kent, when it was purchased by the North-west Kent Trust in 1992.

Royal & Sun Alliance has since taken over from Midland Bank as the trustees of the Property Enterprise Zone Trust. Such Trusts were set up by the previous Government to enable investors to use tax advantages when putting money into property. Such Trusts have since been abolished, and the Trust in the writ ceases to exist as a legal entity at the end of February. Royal and Sun therefore took the precautionary measure of lodging the writ to keep the issue alive.

Asil Nadir's business empire Polly Peck went bust seven years ago, but much of the litigation started soon afterwards by liquidators Deloitte & Touche is still going on. Last week the liquidators, led by Chris Morris, switched solicitors for their action against Polly Peck's former auditors, Stoy Hayward, from Dibb Lupton Alsop to Freshfields, a rival City law firm. The liquidators will continue to use Dibb Lupton on most of the other Polly Peck business, and would not give the reason for the switch.

Glaxo Group, part of drugs giant Glaxo Wellcome, is suing Lagap Pharmaceuticals of Woolmer Way, Bordon, Hampshire, for damages over a patent infringement.

A spokeswoman for Glaxo said yesterday: "We are claiming recovery of damages for what we believe to be past infringments of Salbutamol Syrup." She would not be drawn, however, on how much Glaxo is seeking.