Cases

Global Projects Management Ltd & Anor v Citigroup Inc & Ors

Facts

The merger of 2 companies had led to the formation of the first defendant, Citigroup. Citigroup sought summary judgment of its counterclaim alleging passing off and trade mark infringement. On the same day that the formation of Citigroup was announced (6 April 1998), the second claimant, a director of the first claimant, applied to register the domain name ‘citigroup.co.uk’. The following day, Citigroup’s application to register ‘citigroup.com’ was refused. The first claimant had no connection with Citigroup and had not tried to sell ‘citigroup.co.uk’ to the Defendant. When ‘www.citigroup.co.uk’ was typed in an error message was displayed. Any emails sent to the .co.uk address were received onto Global’s system, which Global’s director had caused to send a return message informing him or her that the email had been wrongly addressed. In 2003, Citigroup became aware of the existence of ‘citigroup.co.uk’ and threatened legal action against Global.

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