NEW ZEALAND: Lion Wins Steinlager Cyberspace Battle

Lion Nathan has won an intellectual property battle against a New Zealand business which was using the Steinlager name as its web address.Wallace Waugh and son Ian, of Waikato, registered steinlager.com more than two years ago. Steinlager is NZ's best selling beer and is brewed by Lion Nathan.But the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a division of the United Nations, has backed Lion Nathan's claim that the web address was not being used for business purposes. The Waughs had offered to sell the address for $20,000.According to the UN panel the Waughs had "no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name." The Waughs, who own an electrical shop, claimed they used the site to sell components to road-marking companies in the US.David Robertsonjust-drinks.com Asia-Pacific correspondent