The registration of the Polish domain name “decathlon.pl� on 13 June 2000 (on the application of a Polish company) was treated by a French company Decathlon as an infringement of either its Decathlon trademark and its good reputation or its company name and the business name.

The French company brought an action to the Court of First Instance in Paris (TGI Paris, 8 juil. 2003, Legalis.net) on the basis of article L. 713-5 of the French Intellectual Property Code (Code de la propriété intellectuelle) and won the case. The Court of First Instance stated that the registration and utilization of the “decathlon.pl� domain name for the website composed of the pictures which depreciated sport infringes the right to the French Decathlon trademark, the company name and the business name.

However, the Polish company appealed from the judgment and in result the ruling of the Court of Appeal (Cour d’appel de Paris, arrêt du 15 dec. 2004, Juriscom.net) was in favour of the appellant.