Scottish family, C S Lewis's estate battle over Narnia domain name

London, June 16 : A Scottish family has become embroiled in a property dispute with the estate of the author C.S. Lewis after purchasing a Narnia Internet domain name for their 11-year-old son as a birthday gift.

Richard and Gillian Saville-Smith, from Edinburgh, paid 70 pounds for the domain name narnia.mobi in 2006 so their son could have it as an email address.

They were asked to return the domain name to the C.S. Lewis company but the couple refused.

The family was then slapped with a 128-page legal complaint filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland.

New York-based law firm Baker and McKenzie, acting for the C.S. Lewis Ltd., claimed that the family had bought the Narnia address 'in bad faith' adding: "The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights."

According to the document, C.S. Lewis Ltd owned the trademark and copyright to C.S. Lewis's literary works plus the narnia.com website.

The trademark had been used in connection with the 'Chronicles of Narnia' series of books and the blockbuster 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'.

Richard said that he would refuses to be bullied.

"Taking this huge 128-page legal action is clearly intended to scare us into handing over something we have that they want - just because they say so and are a big firm of lawyers with an extremely rich client, and not because they are in the right," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

Baker and McKenzie were not available for comment on the matter.

ANI