Trademark infringement by domain name registrars

Abstract

section 27(4) of the Trademark Act, as amended in 2005, provides enforcement against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party (that is usually the infringer itself) for the infringement. In the HYUNDAI case the registrars of the domain names, trusted by the resellers of cars having formerly been members of the HYUNDAI commercial chain in Hungary, were sued together with the resellers for the reason that they did not cancel the registration of the domain names after the commercial chain had been ceased. The Hungarian courts of first and second instance built their judgements on the ECJ’s BMW judgement (C-63/97). Emphasis is given also on a case relating to infringement by an operator of an Internet home page, as the latter was condemned by the Hungarian Court of first instance for not complying with the Act on Electronic Commerce. Nevertheless, the court of second instance condemned him not therefore but for the tort in respect of the provisions of the Civil Code, e.g. for injury of reputation. Finally, the article is closed by an outlook on ideas on the development of EC law relating to liability of intermediaries.