Family facing legal fight over Narnia domain name

Birthday pressie for son leads to lawsuit

16 June 2008 11:35 GMT / By Katie Scott

A birthday present for an 11-year-old Narnia fan has landed a British family in a legal fight.

Richard Saville-Smith bought the domain name Narnia.mobi for his son's birthday present, but has now found himself in deep water with CS Lewis' literary estate.

Th family are now facing a legal challenge from CS Lewis Ltd, controller of the rights to the author's work, which is claiming that Saville-Smith bought the domain name in bad faith with the aim of making money from the Narnia name as cyber-squatters.

The allegations were spelt out in a 128-page dossier, compiled by the New York lawyers Baker & McKenzie, which arrived at Saville-Smith's home in Edinburgh this month.

The lawyers urging the family to relinquish the domain or face a hearing at the Geneva HQ of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) no less.

But Saville-Smith is standing firm and told The Times that he had no intention whatsoever of trying to make money from the domain, which he bought for £70.

"We were amazed the domain name was still free and snapped it up for Comrie, who is a big fan of the Narnia books", said Saville-Smith.

"The people from CS Lewis must have realised they missed it, and now they want it back. They are trying to bully us into handing over our little boy's present with lawyers and legal threats. But we ... don't take kindly to this kind of intimidation, we're not backing down."

The domain has now been frozen while WIPO prepares to hear the case.

Saville-Smith stressed he would not back down.

"It's classic David versus Goliath stuff . We have no intention of making money out of it, it's just for fun. To try to ruthlessly snatch away a gift intended for a young boy who loves his Narnia books is unbelievable."