BRIGHTON and Hove Albion FC have won a battle with a man they accused of trying to make money out of the club’s name.

Dave Bantock registered a “seagulls” website and put up an advert in an old car’s back window trying to sell it.

But the Seagulls accused Mr Bantock of trying to profit from its name after he registered the web domain brightonseagulls.co.uk.

The football club took action after noticing in August that the brightonseagulls.co.uk web domain was being offered for sale in the car window.

The web address was also being advertised online for £3,000, internet watchdog Nominet was told.

The club called Mr Bantock, asking him to voluntarily give up the domain name, but he declined.

According to the club, he asked to be paid a “reasonable fee” to part with the web address and, failing that, “invited the club to take legal action”.

The club claimed Mr Bantock’s aim was to sell the domain name to it, or to a competitor, at a profit.

It said Mr Bantock uses the online alias mr-jamesbond and in that guise offers for sale web addresses featuring well-known names.

These include mrjamesbond.co.uk, primeministerborisjohnson.co.uk, chelsea-f-c.com, jay-z.club, fatboy-slim.com and formula1cars.com.

But Mr Bantock told Nominet expert Bob Elliott he is “only custodian” of the domain names for his vulnerable teenage son.

He admitted that some of the web addresses were a little ‘borderline’, but said this was certainly not deliberate.

He had taken down the car window advert, which he agreed was “maybe being a bit creative”, after being called by the club.

The brightonseagulls.co.uk address had been purchased in order to start a fan-based website, he told Mr Elliott.

He denied that a “dodgy sign” in the back of an old car was “evidence of a professional domain name pirate seeking to extort vast sums”.

And he had “never approached the club” seeking to sell the domain name “in order to extract large sums of money”.

The domain name was freely available but had not been registered by the club.

Ruling on the dispute, Mr Elliott ordered that both the web address, and brightonseagulls.uk – which Mr Bantock had also registered – be transferred to the club.

He said: “Mr Bantock’s only attempt to justify the purpose behind the registration of the domain names is that they were purchased in order to start a fan-based website, and advertised in order to seek investment in such a website, or help for his son.

"This is totally unsupported by evidence, and appears to be contradicted by the wording of the advertisements.

“In short, he is trading in domain names, which he thinks might be attractive to potential purchasers for some reason, and seeking substantial payments for those domain names.”

While that was “not of itself unlawful”, Mr Bantock had “overstepped the mark”, Mr Elliott concluded.

He said: “Overall, the registration of the domain names took unfair advantage of the club’s rights, and was therefore abusive.”

Mr Elliott also heard that the club is taking separate action over Mr Bantock’s registration of the brightonseagulls.com domain name. Nominet has run the .uk domain name registry for more than 20 years and has an official role in resolving disputes.