27/02/2017.

In a landmark High Court case hailed as a ‘big win for smaller firms’, a small US computer design and data management business, Argos Systems, has defeated the Sainsbury-owned UK retail giant, Argos Limited, which had sought to prevent it from using the argos.com domain name it (Argos Systems) had registered in 1992.

Argos Limited brought the £1m trademark infringement and ‘passing off’ action because argos.com was receiving traffic diverted from its own argos.co.uk domain and incorrectly displaying Google advertisement banners featuring Argus UK.

The ruling for Argos Systems in ‘Argos Ltd v Argos Systems Inc, High Court, Chancery Division, Judgment 15 February’ is likely to have wide implications for the future of the operation of Google advertising.

Liz Ward, the principal lawyer at Virtuoso Legal, the law firm acting for Argos Systems, believes her client was successful because it had registered its domain early, underlining the value of domain names and the Internet as a marketplace.

“Firms used to compete for real estate in areas where they could attract most customers and clients” she added, “but that fight is now about clicks, not bricks.”