Technology &
Internet Law

Royal Marines Domain Decision 2002

The Royal Marines, not well known for losing battles, have not stopped a domain name owner from using the domain name royalmarines.co.uk. A Nominet expert gave the decision under the Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) in Royal Marines v O'Neil (July 2002). The Respondent, Neil O'Neil, had registered the name to allow ex-Marines to have their say anonymously about life in the Royal Marines and as a service to "would be" Marines, in the hope that they would make an informed choice before signing up. He did admit that it was bought as an investment for a very modest price, even though O'Neil allowed ex-Marines to use the site free of charge. 

Abusive Registrations

In order to succeed under the DRS, a complainant needs to prove two ingredients: (1) that he has rights to the name; and (2) that the registration by another was an Abusive Registration at the date of the registration. The Royal Marines claimed both of these. However, they did not declare exactly what those rights were nor did they provide any evidence to support that claim. Even though there was no trade mark registration, the Secretary of State for Defence had a pending trade mark registration. If successful, it would be the Secretary of State and not the Royal Marines who would own the name. 

As to the allegation of Abusive Registration, the Royal Marines merely alleged that the name belongs to them, without any documentary support of abuse. 

O'Neil showed that the Royal Marines had an official MOD website and had registered the domain "royalmarine.org" which they use as a point-of-information site. Moreover, it was shown that others had registered domains like "royalmarines.com", "royalmarine.net" and "royalmarines.info". 

The Expert held that since the Royal Marines had no registered rights the only rights which might exist would be those which could vest in the Secretary of State for Defence. Accordingly, the Royal Marines failed to show any rights to the name.  

As to Abusive registration, the Expert held that since O'Neil, when he registered the domain, genuinely thought that the Royal Marines had no right to the name (given that others had registered similar domains), he did not take "unfair advantage" of the rights (as required) of the Royal Marines; accordingly there was no abuse.  

Ulterior Motive

Moreover, even though the domain was bought for "investment", the free usage given to ex-Marines showed that O'Neil did not register or acquire the Domain Name "primarily" for the purpose of selling, renting or transferring the Domain Name. Thus, the Expert concluded that O'Neil registered the Domain Name "primarily" for the purpose of using the website himself, or having someone else use the website, to exchange information about the Royal Marines.

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