METALLICA Threaten Legal Action Against Swedish Steelworkers Union

According to an article on the Swedish IT news web site IDG.se, METALLICA have threatened legal action against the Swedish steelworkers union Metall over the rights to the Internet domain name Metallica.st (view web site at this location).

The domain name Metallica.st is registered by Förvaltnings AB Metallica, which is the Swedish steelworkers union's venture capital firm.

METALLICA's representatives (Zacco Sweden AB, the leading intellectual property consultancy in Scandinavia) have contacted the Swedish Internet Service Provider Bahnhof, which is managing and administering the country-level domain name .st for the small African country São Tomé and Principe.

Disputes of this nature are addressed once a month in a meeting in São Tomé and Principe, which is attended by Bahnhof's chief executive, Jon Karlung.

Karlung told IDG.se that he believes METALLICA will have a hard time arguing their rights against the Swedish union.

"It doesn't seem like the domain has been hijacked in an attempt to harm anyone or to profit financially [from METALLICA's name], but we will bring this up at the next meeting," he said.

Six years ago, Bahnhof made a deal with São Tomé and Principe to start a country-level domain which is now administered by the African nation itself but which is operated using servers in various other countries, including Sweden.

For more background information on METALLICA's possible legal action against Förvaltnings AB Metallica, check out these two entries on the blog of Bahnhof founder Oscar Swartz, who started Sweden's first Internet Service Provider in 1994: April 11, April 12 (in Swedish).