(1) Nominet UK
(2) Lesley Cowley [The Chief Executive of Nominet, suing as a representative of the directors and staff, for legal reasons]

v

(1) Peter Francis-Macrae
(2) Ultra Technologies Ltd

This case concerned the Domain Registry Services invoicing scheme, which Nominet issued a warning about in August 2004.

The scheme involved the issuing of documents that appeared to be renewal notices for .uk domain names, when in fact 'Domain Registry Services' had no association with us and was not the relevant Tag-Holder.

We sued on the basis of database right infringement and passing off (unregistered trade mark law) and obtained a judgement in default.

The injunctions require payment of £81,000 in costs with damages, or an account of profits, to be assessed. Following the making of this order we received a telephone call from someone who purported to be Mr Francis-Macrae threatening to attack our computer systems if we did not withdraw a press notice from our website within two hours. Mr Francis-Macrae was arrested within two hours. No attack on our systems was made.

We also assisted the police in their investigations, which led to successful prosecutions. A police press release mentioning this is available (see section on Fraud and Money Laundering). An appeal against the convictions failed, and asset confiscation hearings have started, although Mr Francis-Macrae is not reported to have been co-operative (external link).