A small British business involved in a legal row with Apple, the multi-national computer company, is considering taking its case to the High Court after being ordered to give up the internet address itunes.co.uk.

Benjamin Cohen, the chief executive of CyberBritain Holdings, denies he is a "cyber squatter" and claims he properly registered the domain name a month before Apple's application for a British trademark for iTunes, its market-leading online music store, was made public.

However, Nominet, the UK internet registry, today found that Mr Cohen had made an "abusive registration" and ruled that the domain name should be transferred to Apple.

Nominet's rules state that they can rule in the complainant's favour if "the respondent is using the domain name in a way which has confused people or businesses into believing that the domain name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the complainant".

Mr Cohen said: "We were not expecting this decision by Nominet's appointed expert. Apple chose to launch the UK brand of 'itunes' within the UK with the knowledge that we had owned the name for three years before their United States launch and four years before their launch within the UK."

Mr Cohen must now decide whether to appeal to Nominet directly or to refer the matter to the High Court.

Both of these options are expensive and are not necessarily within the means of a small business, he said.

However, the recent High Court victory of Phone4U.co.uk against the major retailer, Phones4U, which is owned by the Caudwell Group, in a similar case has led Mr Cohen "to think that our case may be extremely strong".

According to CyberBritain Holdings, pending an appeal or referral to the High Court, itunes.co.uk will continue to be a forwarding address leading to QuickQuid.com, its shopping website.

Mr Cohen claims he was unaware that Apple Computer had applied for a trademark for the name "iTunes" on October 27, 2000. Mr Cohen registered the domain name on November 7 that year.

"The details of the application were strictly confidential and only known to Apple, their filing agents and HM Patent Office. It was not until December 6, 2000 that their application was published in Trade Marks Journal, four weeks after we began using the domain name," he said.

Mr Cohen claims the name was automatically suggested by a domain registering website as an alternative after he had made a failed attempt to buy tunes.co.uk.

Apple's lawyers, Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie, first contacted Mr Cohen in November last year.

"The American iTunes service was running for two years before it was set up in the UK and they could have contacted us then to agree a settlement but they did not," Mr Cohen said.

Times Online approached Apple for comment but has yet to receive a response.

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