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- MediaGuardian,
- Friday December 15, 2000
The owner of a bizarre website dedicated to sheep has won a large out-of-court settlement from the British Airports Authority in the latest in a series of David and Goliath battles over domain names.
BAA has paid Tom Bourke, owner of Baa.com, an undisclosed amount to avoid further legal wrangling.
Mr Bourke could not comment on the case or the payment because of a confidentiality agreement.
However BAA said it was the payment was the equivalent to what it would have paid out in litigation. Observers estimate this to be around £200,000.
Mr Bourke's baa.com features a Dolly-cloned sheep puzzle game and other sheep-related news.
BAA originally offered Mr Bourke £8,000 for the name. He reportedly asked for £2m. In April BAA announced it was serving a writ against him.
Months of legal shenanigans have cost Mr Bourke over £50,000. He ran a campaign against BAA on the site.
BAA says it now owns the domain name and says it will use it as its global website.
The news comes on the same day that film giant Warner Brothers dropped legal threats against a British schoolgirl's Harry Potter website.
Last week Warner Brothers, owner of the film rights to author JK Rowling's blockbuster book, warned 15-year-old Claire Field after discovering she owned the domain name www.harrypotterguide.co.uk.
It gave Ms Field 28 days to hand it over and offerd her a £9.99 fee.
But Warner Brothers head of publicity Barbara Broliatti saw sense and is now looking at granting Claire a free licence to become an official Harry Potter site.
