Lawyers lost in fantasy land

Published on Sunday 15 June 2008 21:27

IT IS a story surely made for a new Chronicles of Narnia: Comrie, an 11-year-old Scots boy and his parents pitched against a mighty New York legal firm.

For the 'sin' of registering an internet domain name as a birthday gift – [e-mail] – the Scots family has received demands for the name to be returned by a unilaterally set deadline, accompanied by a monstrous 128-page legal complaint filed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Switzerland.

Whatever happened to proportionality? Certainly if anything was more calculated to encourage Comrie's parents to stick to their guns and fight for the domain name that they legally applied and paid for, this is it.

The seven fantasy novels comprising The Chronicles of Narnia were written by CS Lewis, who would surely have been appalled that a child's fondness for his work should be greeted with a 128-page legal complaint.

The novels have sold more than 100 million copies in 41 languages around the world, and their wonderful stories and characterisations have become the universal property of children everywhere.

Such a reaction by American lawyers borders on the ridiculous and it seems fantastical that a birthday gift could be flamed up as intellectual property theft.