A year after being awarded it by a Russian court, Forbes Media’s local online edition there has finally been handed the forbes.ru domain name by a company that had controlled it.
Forbes is published under license in Russia by Germany’s Axel Springer, which last year took Landmark VIP Services to court, arguing its ownership of forbes.ru amounted to improper use of the trademark.
The Court of the First Instance agreed with the publisher and prohibited Landmark from continuing to use the name. Landmark appealed and won a right to overturn the decision.
Forbes had filed a counter-appeal but has now struck a private settlement with Landmark, whose managing director says (via Forbes.ru itself) it is transferring the domain “as a gesture of goodwill”.
The official story makes no mention of whether money changed hands. Forbes had previously been operating in Russia at forbesrussia.ru.
(Via Quintura).