US publisher Take-Two have failed to win a legal battle disputing the ownership of the web domain www.bioshock.com.
The domain is currently registered with an American company Name Administration Inc. (NA Media), who have held the domain ever since BioShock was first leaked in 2004 but before Take-Two officially confirmed the game or registered it as a trademark.
Name Administration have a history of domain squatting, having previously registered www.taketwointeractive.com, before it was disputed and passed over to Take-Two. However, when they registered the BioShock domain its existence was not linked with 2K Games or Take-Two, so the recurrence could just be a coincidence.
The actual legality of domain squatting seems a little hazy, with some sources online claiming that it’s illegal, but considering Take-Two lost the legal battle, perhaps it’s not so straightforward. A major reason cited for this was that the domain was registered before Take-Two filed for the trademark.
The domain is currently registered with an American company Name Administration Inc. (NA Media), who have held the domain ever since BioShock was first leaked in 2004 but before Take-Two officially confirmed the game or registered it as a trademark.
Name Administration have a history of domain squatting, having previously registered www.taketwointeractive.com, before it was disputed and passed over to Take-Two. However, when they registered the BioShock domain its existence was not linked with 2K Games or Take-Two, so the recurrence could just be a coincidence.
The actual legality of domain squatting seems a little hazy, with some sources online claiming that it’s illegal, but considering Take-Two lost the legal battle, perhaps it’s not so straightforward. A major reason cited for this was that the domain was registered before Take-Two filed for the trademark.
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