Naver wins suit over domain name ‘www.line.co.kr’

The court ruled that although the Internet domain name (www.line.co.kr), which is the same as top portal Naver’s trademarked “Line” messenger service, was registered before the latter, the former must hand over the domain address to Naver for free due to the possibility to misuse the web address.

In a suit against Naver’s subsidiary Line Corporation demanding the court to “confirm‎ he has no obligation to erase the domain (line.co.kr)” filed by the Internet domain name’s owner identified by “A,” the Seoul Central District Court said on Tuesday that it ruled in favor of the defendant.

Naver had submitted application to revoke the domain address to the Internet domain dispute arbitration committee in January last year after judging that “A” was abusing the domain address, including link from the domain to an introduction page of Kakao, a rival service of Line, and successfully led the committee to revoke the domain name. The portal has now changed the link from the domain to Naver Café pages. In an act of defiance, “A” filed lawsuit against Naver, but the court ruled in favor of the portal, saying, “It is judged inappropriate for a third party to use the domain as it pleases.”

신무경기자 fighter@donga.com