By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics has won a legal battle against a kimbap (steamed rice rolled in dried seaweed with other ingredients) shop owner.
The Seoul Central District Court Friday ruled that the owner, identified only by his last name Kim, must hand over to Samsung ownership of his domain name, which was named after one of the electronic firm's laptop brands, SENS.
The court ruled that it is a case of cybersquatting ― registering and using a domain name in bad faith ― although the domain holder has not tried to sell it to the brand makers.
Kim registered the domain name ``sens.co.kr'' in 1998 with the National Internet Development Agency at the request of one of his relatives who ran a computer program company.
Samsung Electronics, which started production of SENS laptops in 1994 and now dominates the nation's laptop market, filed a petition last June with the Internet Address Dispute Resolution Committee to the rights of the domain.
The committee ruled that Kim turn the address over to Samsung. But Kim filed a suit, claiming the word ``sens'' was a commonly used word and that he and his relative had temporarily suspended use of it. Kim added he did not intend to preoccupy it and sell it to the company in exchange for money.
The court said that Samsung's SENS is a name widely recognized in the computer industry, that the names of Kim's kimbap shop and the relative's firm had nothing to do with ``sens'' and their businesses did not need the domain.
``It is presumable that Kim and the relative registered `sens.co.kr' and just possessed it for some 10 years in order to preoccupy the domain, not to actually use it,'' the court said.
``Although Kim has not tried to sell the Internet address to Samsung, such possession implies a purpose for profiteering,''' it said.
The court ordered that Kim cancel registration of ``sens.co.kr,'' and the dispute resolution committee will soon rule on the transfer of the domain to Samsung Electronics.