Hello! magazine has lost its bid to take control of the hello.com domain

so it will still be running its website from hellomagazine.com. The Spanish publisher issued a claim to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which deals with domain names ending with .com and can order names to be transferred if there are copyright or other trademark infringements. Currently the name is owned by US internet venture company Idealab – it was originally registered in 1996. Hello! said it became aware of the domain name in July 2000 and asked Idealab to provide a link to the Hello! website from hello.com, which it refused to do. Hello! claimed in its appeal to WIPO that Idealab is using the name in bad faith. Domain name disputes have gone hand in hand with the growth of the internet as speculators often took names that were specific to brands and tried to extract money from the brand owners. With generic names it has been difficult to take control of a name, so it did seem unlikely that Hello! would win. It will be interesting to see if it will take any action over hello.co.uk, which is owned by a small UK computer company. And will OK! try to take control of OK.com? The domain is owned by a group promoting "positive media choices" for children, helping people to avoid material unsuitable for family viewing.