Benjamin Cohen, who lost his iTunes.co.uk domain name to Apple earlier this year is arguing that Nominet is not officially recognised by the Government and therefore has no rights to make decisions over what should be done with domains that it sells. Nominet awarded the iTunes.co.uk domain to Apple, who had accused Cohen of cyber-squatting, despite the fact that Cohen registered the itunes.co.uk domain name on 7th November 2000, whereas Apple were only had the trademark for "iTunes" published in the Trade Marks Journal on 6 December 2000.

Cohen had been using the domain just to forward users to a music search at his CyberBritain site. Since Nominet's decisions, Cohen has made many legal threats but discovered that he was not able to take the decision made against him to the High Court for Judicial Review because of Nominet's peculiar status. The Government has stated that there is "no formal relationship or written agreement" between the UK government and Nominet which means it's not a public body and is subject to usual laws covering UK companies.

Cohen argues however that this status is misleading since representatives from government bodies have permanent seats on Nominet's Policy Advisory Board (PAB), a situation which the Government has admitted does not exist for any other company. However, it's not clear how this will help Cohens case. If he were to accept an appeal heard by three Nominet-appointed experts, it would show him recognising Nominet's authority in the matter. Also when you buy a domain from Nominet you sign a contract that means you accept its domain dispute process in this situation.

Source:
The Register