Family embroiled in web dispute
2008-06-16 09:55
London - A Scottish family has become
embroiled in an intellectual property dispute with the estate of
the author CS Lewis after it bought a Narnia internet domain
name for their 10-year-old son as a birthday present.
Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith, who live in Edinburgh in
Scotland, paid £70 to purchase the domain name
Narnia.mobi from the internet registration company Fasthosts in
2006 so their son could have it as an e-mail address.
They were asked to return the domain name to the CS Lewis
company, the owners of the author's estate, but refused. The
family then received a 128-page legal complaint filed with the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) in Switzerland.
"We'd been saving it as a surprise for our little boy's
birthday to coincide with the release of the Narnia film," said
Mrs Saville-Smith, referring to the British release of Walt
Disney Co's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Following the 2005 release of The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, Prince Caspian is the second in a series of films
based on the Narnia books by Lewis, with its British premiere
scheduled for June 19.
"Our whole family are great admirers of CS Lewis and he
must be turning in his grave about all this," added Mrs
Saville-Smith, who is an award-winning Scottish poet.
"To try to ruthlessly snatch away a gift intended for a
young boy who loves his Narnia books is unbelievable."
The family must reply to the Wipo by June 23 with the
organisation expected to makes its decision within a month.
"We've never made any money out of this domain and have no
interest in doing so," Mr Saville-Smith, who is an accountant,
said.
"We don't have the money to hire intellectual property
lawyers, so we're saying 'help!' One thing for sure is that our
response won't be 128 pages long, it will be more like 10 pages
- we're looking at quality rather than quantity.
"Even after Wipo makes its decision that's not the end of it
because either party can appeal that verdict.
"If the Wipo decides in favour of the CS Lewis estate,
that would be the end of it for us. However, I don't expect they
will, because their case is flimsy and we've done nothing
wrong."
No-one was available for comment from Baker & McKenzie, the
law firm that represents the CS Lewis estate.