Radio Taxicabs (London) Limited has been trading under the name Radio Taxis since the 1950s. In 1997, its rival registered the disputed .com domain name. The following year, Radio Taxis registered the .co.uk name. However, it was two years before the company took action to get hold of the .com name.
Radio Taxis contended that the combination of the domain name and the fact that it was being used by a rival site amounted to passing off. This is a legal remedy which can arise where one business represents itself as being associated with another in such a way that it is calculated to cause confusion.
However, in a judgment published yesterday, the High Court noted that Radio Taxis was unable to provide any evidence of actual confusion in the two years during which the Dial-A-Cab web site had been available using the RadioTaxis.com domain name.
The court did not consider that Dial-A-Cab had registered the name with the intention of taking advantage of its rival's name, reputation or goodwill, or of diverting its business. It was also significant that, while the name "Radio Taxis" was well known within the taxi trade, it had no such reputation amongst members of the general public – and the court did not believe that confusion within the trade was likely. Accordingly, the claim for the domain name was dismissed.