Judge rules against Volkswagen in 'vw.net' case

A US judge has ruled in favour of small business, Virtual Works, in a dispute with Volkswagen over domain name registration.

The federal Judge ruled that the car manufacturer could not prevent the ISP from using the address vw.net.

William Bode, lawyer for Virtual Works, said in a written statement: "This demonstrates the mere fact that a company holds a trademarked name [does not mean it can] necessarily preclude others from using that mark as an Internet domain name."

The ruling is just one in a recent spate of cases which has seen judges ruling in favour of small companies. Consulting firm Clue Computing recently won the right to use Clue.com as its domain name despite protestations from toy maker and manufacturer of the board game, Cluedo, Hasbro, which claimed the right to the name.