Man loses his right to Portaloo web address
A man who registered 'portalooservices.co.uk' as his web address has been flushed out by the company which has hired out mobile toilets at events since 1965.
Sean Westwood, of Histons Hill, Codsall, caused a stink at Portakabin Ltd when he registered the controversial internet domain name in August 2013.
The company, which has trade mark rights in the name 'Portaloo', complained bitterly and now Mr Westwood has been ordered to hand over the web address.
Portaloos have been a common sight at countless events for 50 years.
And internet watchdog, Nominet, ruled that Mr Westwood had 'taken unfair advantage' of the reputation of the mobile toilet brand.
Portakabin, based in Huntington, North Yorkshire, said it feared Mr Westwood's domain name could be used to unfairly disrupt its business and confuse its customers.
And Dr Russell Richardson from Nominet – the official registry for UK domain names, agreed.
Dr Richardson added: "The registration of the domain name took unfair advantage of, and was unfairly detrimental to, Portakabin's rights."
Mr Westwood's registration of the web address was ruled 'abusive' and the expert directed its transfer to Portakabin.
Mr Westwood said: "I own a drain cleaning company and we were looking at starting offering Portaloo services as well.
"I just owned the domain, there wasn't a website.
"We've been so busy that I didn't even know about this.
"We certainly didn't intend to infringe any trademarks."
Nominet investigated the issue after being contacted by Portakabin.
Mr Westwood was notified by letter at the end of May that the domain name would be transferred to Portakabin.
The watchdog dealt with 728 complaints last year including complaints from brands likeAldi, Amazon and the BBC.
