Boot's on the other foot for royal wellie maker

August 2004

Henry Maxwell, bootmakers to the British Royal Family, recently lost their domain name henrymaxwell.com after they forgot to renew it, allowing it to be swept up and re-registered by a Swiss registrant who now uses the domain as a porn site.

Henry Maxwell has been one of London's leading shoemakers for the last 250 years and were responsible for making the first ever "Wellington riding boot" - a cut-down version of the full-length boot worn by British army cavalry officers - for the 1st Duke of Wellington.

They had registered and used the domain henrymaxwell.com for email and a web page advertising their services since 2001. However, they neglected to renew the domain, resulting in it being deleted and consequently re-registered by a third party who now uses it as a less than family-friendly web site. As well as the immediate embarrassment, the company will also have to deal with the cost and inconvenience of re-printing stationery and other promotional materials - all of which will be directing their potential and existing clients to a pornographic web site.