An investigation into the legal status of internet domain names
Mohammad Al Ramahi · Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) · 2014
The thesis takes as its central object and problematic the contentious status of domain names in global and domestic legal systems.It considers the manner in which advances in technology have blurred the legal rights between domain names and the existing laws of trademark, contract, copyright and property.1 As it stands, domain names are presented as a secondary right attached to other legal rights such as trademark or contract law, rather than as a new form, or species, of intellectual property.And yet, domain names represent a valuable, distinct and scarce commodity, which, in so far as they are capable of exclusive and excludable use, control and "ownership", exhibit regularities common to forms of property.