5 years ago... French Connection sues over fcuk.com

21.07.99: High street retailer French Connection is heading for the courts over ownership of the www.fcuk.com domain name.

The company has filed a lawsuit against a UK internet consultancy, First Consultants, which currently uses the domain name for its website.

21.07.04: Cases of cybersquatting were commonplace in the late 90s as chancers assumed that simply beating a company to the punch was enough to guarantee profits from selling on the domain to its 'rightful owner'. Many would register domains using the names of major companies and then sell the firm the right to use it for a tidy sum.

While many companies did just decide to pay up and bid for their own domain names, others got legal.

In this case, the defence of First Consultants was stronger than many, given the fact it shares its initials with French Connection and initial legal assaults from the clothing chain proved fruitless.

Nowadays, given the number of precedents established, the legal route is proving ever more popular.

Canadian chanteuse Alanis Morrissette, cheeky Potteries pop star Robbie Williams and Liverpool football club are just three of the parties who have claimed to be victims of cybersquatting and employed their lawyers to resolve the issue.