M-Web in 24.com. domain tug of war

February 7th, 2003
By ITWeb

A bid to register the 24.com domain as a trademark is facing stiff opposition from a lesser known brand, host24.com, which says such a move will be to the detriment of smaller domains.

The Naspers/Media 24 Group, which owns M-Web through the MIH Group, has applied to register the 24.com and 24.co.za domains as a trademark with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Host24.com has been running for the past four years and hosts 300 domains. Johan Pretorius, the owner of the domain, says he has already lodged his objection with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Pretorius has also set up a Web site, www.nobodyowns24.com, in which he urges other domains to "prevent Naspers/Media24 or M-Web from hijacking all domains ending in either 24.com or 24.co.za".

"If the registration goes through they will eventually prevent anybody from using any domain with 24.com or 24.co.za," he says. "This is going to set a very dangerous precedent which will eventually drive small domain hosts out of business."

MIH Group sent Pretorius a letter in November last year, saying his continued use of the 24.com domain amounted to trade mark infringement in terms of the Trade Marks Act.

"In view of the above, we demand that you immediately delete the domain name registrations host24.com and host24.co.za forthwith, or alternatively transfer the domain name registrations to M-Web," the letter said.

Pretorius set up the www.nobodyowns24.com Web site in "direct response" to the letter which also instructed him to cease all and any unauthorised use of the trade mark 24.com, whether as part of a corporate name, trading style, domain name or in relation to his business services.

"We have a huge problem with that, since one of the members of that group, M-Web, has started to use their so-called ownership of 24.com' to intimidate small businesses like ourselves to either abandon domains ending in 24.com or 24.co.za, or transfer ownership of those domains to them.

"Both terms contained in 24.com' are generic. The numbers 2 and 4 obviously indicate that services are rendered on a 24-hour basis, and the .com suffix forms an integral part of the Internet as we know it today. Nobody should therefore be able to register a trademark containing only those terms," says Pretorius.

MIH Group failed to respond to requests for comment. - ITWeb