LinkedIn wins case against Irish man in ‘.ie’ row

A worldwide intellectual property watchdog has ruled that an Irishman cannot keep the Linkedin.ie domain name after the employment network LinkedIn.com made a complaint.

The ruling by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) found that the registrant of Linkedin.ie had “intentionally attempted to attract internet users to a website or other online location by creating confusion with a protected identifier in which the complainant has rights”.

Linkedin.ie was registered with the IE Domain Register (IEDR) on February 12 this year and turns to a website — www.jobnetwork.ie — which offers information about jobs in Ireland. The word LinkedIn does not appear anywhere on the site.