During my time working in private practice, I never had a client come to me and say that a competitor is using their phone number – but I had several say that someone has ‘their’ domain name. The internet’s designers realised that their initial answer to phone numbers (IP addresses) were pretty dull and instantly forgettable, so they created domain names, the road signs for the internet. These can be highly distinctive and memorable – which leads to inevitable disputes and disagreements.
A domain name is usually seen as part of an email address (after the @ sign) or website address (after www.), and so is considered vital in online trading and building a company’s brand online.
