Domain Name as Personal Property: Tucows.Com Co. v Lojas Renner S.A.

In a landmark decision made last week in Tucows.Com Co. v. Lojas Renner S.A., the Ontario Court of Appeal found that internet domain names qualify as personal property. The dispute was over (Canadian company) Tucow’s right to keep the domain name <renner.com> in the face of (Brazilian company) Renner’s registered trademark “Renner”. The court held for Tucows, deciding that it could bring a claim in Ontario for declaratory relief against Renner on the grounds that a domain name registered to Tucows constituted intangible personal property.

In 2006, Tucows purchased and registered 30,000 domain names, including <renner.com>, with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Three years later, Renner filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) according to ICANN’s Uniform Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), alleging that Tucows was using the domain name in bad faith and sought to have it de-registered. Instead of responding to Renner’s substantive claims, Tucows sought declaratory relief from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, requesting confirmation “that Tucows has rights or legitimate interests with respect to the <renner.com> domain name.”

Following analysis of international jurisprudence and academic commentary, the Court decided that “the dominant view… appears to be that domain names are a new type of intangible property”. And following a survey of Canadian law over what constitutes as property, it also concluded that the bundle of rights associated with a domain name were sufficient to make it personal property. As such, Tuscows’ claim was allowed.