After owning the starwars.co.uk domain name for more than a decade, a Berkshire-based fancy-dress retailer has finally sold the domain name to Disney.
The retailer’s parent company Abscissa also owns starwars.co.uk, star-wars.co.uk, star-wars.uk, star-warsco.co.uk, star-warsco.uk, starwars.uk, and starwarsco.co.uk domains.
However, the company has been asked to surrender the name by UK based domain name overseer Nominet, to give it to the mass media giant Disney.
The e-commerce site used the starwars.co.uk to sell Star Wars merchandise and memorabilia.
Lucasfilm, the production company behind Star Wars, left the domain registration lapse, which was picked up by Abscissa back in 2003.
Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.1bn, and also bought all the intellectual property surrounding the Star Wars franchise which led to its decision to take over the star-wars.co.uk and related domain names.
BBC cited Abscissa’s chief executive Mark Lewis as saying: "If the new Star Wars films by Disney were not being released, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
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"They wanted the starwars.uk domain, they haven’t [got it], and in essence they’ve thrown their teddies out of the pram.
"That’s how we feel. Are we disappointed? Yes. Are we surprised? Not necessarily."
