The IPKat's friend Lauren Ezekiel, IP staff writer for IP World, has sent him a delightful little story, though he's none too sure where she got it from. The gist of it is that property developers Hammerson were forced to change the name of a new £350 million shopping centre in Leicester, England, after a group of witches and wizards maintained that it had special significance for them. The centre was originally going to be called “Highcross Quarter”, but the witches and wizards said this was the pagan and Wicca name for an important date in their calendar.
Members of the local coven instantly registered the relevant domain names and uploaded them with information on the group’s beliefs. Hammerson apparently contacted the group via the World Intellectual Property Organization and offered a large sum of money for the domain, which was rejected. After a year-long battle the name has been changed to the less controversial “Highcross Leicester”.Left: The IPKat has not yet abandoned his attempts to learn Quidditch ...
Highcross Quarter websites here and here
Three Witches here
Strange Brew here
Highcross Quarter
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Rating:
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Rating:
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We had no objections to Hammerson Plc naming their shopping centre development after the highcross quarters... however we advised them to use another name. This was becuase we felt some of their shareholders might not be comfortable with it and neither would some of the millions of people across the east mildands that Hammersons, John Lewis etc who the retail development is aimed at drawing in.
ReplyDeleteHammerson Plc (As of 31st July 2007) are still after our domain names. They have not withdrawn action at UN WIPO or Nominet.
Our IT Consultants webwordwizards.com are still preparing our 900 pages submissions.
We hope to win and make a very public example of hammerson plc.
Morrigan Wisecraft
Loughborough - England
www.highcrossquarter.co.uk
I have worked with clients, a charity, of the company that developed the witches website. He tried to get members of staff to pretend to be witches of this coven so that he could win this case - he is my opinion a crook. He left the charity I work without passwords to their computers or the ability to control their website.
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