A panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has ruled in favour of Sony and Nintendo in domain name disputes that concerned infringements of their respective trade marks.

Nintendo's US division filed a complaint against a US citizen who registered and used the domain name i-nintendo.com. The name’s owner argued that Nintendo was a general term for video games, and that the name was to be used for an on-line game store that would sell Nintendo products. He also insisted that there was no intention to confuse consumers, and that he had posted on his site the disclaimer, “Not an official Nintendo website.”

The WIPO panel disagreed with his arguments, ruling in favour of Nintendo and stating that the name’s registration was “dishonest behaviour brought on by malicious intent.”

Sony’s US division filed successful complaints against two South Korean individuals using the word Sony in various domain names, such as worldsony.com and sony.net. No defences were lodged with the WIPO panel.

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