Swedish man wins domain name dispute

A man from Sweden has won a claim made against him by multinational consulting form Mercer over a domain name.

The 50-year-old man, who lives in Eslov in southern Sweden, registered mercer.se in 2003 to establish an interior design supply store, reports Skanska Dagbladet.

Mercer lodged a complaint with the Swedish Internet Infrastructure Foundation earlier this year over the use of the domain name.

The multinational firm, full name Mercer Human Resources Consulting AB, claimed the man has never used the domain name and a homepage was not even connected to the site, demanding the domain name was reassigned to them.

The man told the newspaper that mercer is traditionally associated "with a peddler of luxury textiles" and so related to his intended business.

A decision by the Swedish Internet Infrastructure Foundation found in the man's favour, claiming the word mercer did not feature prominently enough in the firm's title to "substantiate a claim to the domain name".

Recent figures from VeriSign showed that 184 million total domain names were registered by businesses and individuals by the end of the second quarter of 2009.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry