Ontario court decides domain names are intangible property

Judges in Ontario, Canada, have decided that domain names can be considered legal property in that province.

In a decision which could potentially have wider significance, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that domain names exhibit more of the features of intangible property than of a licence.

The London Free Press reported how the Tucows.Com Co v. Lojas Renner S.A. case has brought the property/licence debate back into the public consciousness.

Judges examined the traditional common-law attributes of property, in particular whether there exists “a collection of rights over things that can be enforced against others”.

Deciding this is the case, the court sided with Tuscows, a company which had registered around 30,000 different domain names and was seeking to have them classed as property.

Writing for the news provider, trademark lawyer David Canton said the Ontario decision would not have a dramatic impact on the day-to-day use of domain names.

“But it helps clarify their legal status for many issues ranging from ownership disputes to the right to bequeath them to heir,” he added.