Sanparks Reclaims Domain Names

South African National Parks (Sanparks) has reached a settlement regarding the reclaiming of the domain names www.sanparks.co.za and www.sanparks.com, domains formerly controlled by a private tour operator. “In the past”, explains e-commerce manager Nedret Saidova, “in the public’s eye, the private tour operator (with whom the domain name dispute arose) was seen to be “Sanparks”.

“This was hugely problematic, particularly for first-time and international visitors looking for information on Sanparks,as they would regard the site as an authentic mouthpiece for the organisation, and thus take the accuracy of the information to be endorsed by Sanparks”.

This led to potential discrepancies between official Sanparks information, and what was displayed by the private tour operator." We were confident that we could reclaim the domain names because of our understanding that with the establishment of Sanparks as a trademark, the organizations protected by Notice 4244 of 2000 ofDTI – Merchandise Marks Act, 1941”, explains Saidova.Sanparks’ case, to a large degree, rested on the basic fact that Sanparks is the owner of the copyright for the content (literaryand artistic), on the Sanparks website, and that the private tour operator registered the www.sanparks.com and www.sanparks.co.za domain names, which include the Sanparks trademark, without the authority of Sanparks.

Further to that there were instances where use was made of material from www.sanparks.org that was seen to be infringing on Sanparks copyright. Glenn Philips, Executive Director of Tourism and Marketing sees the settlement of the case as the correction of a grossanomaly, as opposed to a victory." The court ruling returns what is rightfully ours”, he explains. “It means greatly improved accessibility to our organisation’ scurrent website: www.sanparks.org, and further strengthens improved client services and a reduction in the kind of misinformation that resulted from the private tour operator’s website being continually confused with the Sanparkswebsite”.