Sixteen year old schoolboy, Edward Elliott, and his father Mike, are being sued for a cool £50,000 by Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. Former pig farmer Mr. Elliott owns 40 acres of land adjacent to the airport and converted his failing farm into a long stay car park for customers of the airport three years ago. He charges a fraction of airport parking tariffs.
Enterprising Edward, keen to help out his dad, paid £15 for the domain name www.liverpoolairportcarparking.co.uk to help promote the business on the web. In March he received a demand for £1000 damages from Liverpool Airport together with an order to hand over the domain name because it infringes the airport’s trademark. Mr. Elliott wrote to the airport and pointed out that Edward, a schoolboy, only receives £1.50 per week pocket money. Meanwhile, Edward registered the website under a new address, www.liverpoolparkandfly.com but refused to hand over the disputed domain name because of the airport’s attitude. Last week the airport reacted by issuing a writ against Edward and his father.
A cynical person might observe that the airport is keen to put the Elliotts out of business, not because of trademark infringement but because of the threat to their car park profits. This might explain why the airport took the decision to sue the Elliotts rather than offering to buy the troublesome domain name. Liverpool Airport’s defence against Edward and his father is because they “are trying to protect the company name”. They shouldn’t bother because the company’s name is SHIT.