Brisbane City Council argued that it had the exclusive right to the name because it owned registered trade marks that include the words Brisbane City. Warren Bolton, who lives near Brisbane and describes his business as a local government consultancy, registered the domain name and had offered it for auction with an asking price of US$25,000.
Warren Bolton observed that the Council’s trade marks only qualified for registration as trade marks by their inclusion of other words in support of the term Brisbane City. He argued that he intends to use the domain name as a portal to service the city.
The panellist in the case looked to previous cases over geographical domain names, including Barcelona.com and PortOfHelsinki.com. He took the view that Brisbane City is not a trade mark, but rather a descriptive term. After this finding, it was not necessary for the panellist to consider whether Warren Bolton had a legitimate interest in the name and whether or not he had registered and used the name in good faith.