Highcross Leicester - Highcross Quarter - What is it?
The Highcross Leicester is the new mixed use development opened in Sept 2008 in Leicester city centre. Formed from the original 'Shires' shopping centre and massively extended to bring in new anchor John Lewis and an enlarged Next as well as many aspirational fashion brands such as Lacoste, Hugo Boss and Cruise all new to Leicester.
The £350 million development featuring a Cinema de Lux as well as a selection of restaurants such as Carluccio's, Wagamama and Real China was originally (in July 2006) rebranded from "Shires" to "Highcross Quarter".
Outpaced in Domain Name acquisition then beaten in UN WIPO ruling .
Highcross, Highcross Leicester or Highcross Quarter... what ever Leicester's new restaurant, shopping, city living quarter is known as, it will always be known for having to change its name after being outpaced in registering the highcrossquarter internet names and then having the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation hand down a ruling against its developers... Hammerson Plc in favour of Leicester based Digital Media Creators and IT Consultants Webwordwizards.com representing octogenarian Mrs Morrigan Wisecraft's wiccan group.
WEBWORDWIZARDS own HD Video's of the Highcross & Photo slide shows of the Highcross Leicester - Highcross Quarter here on this website serve to illustrate and explain what the Highcross is and also discuss, as well as detail the naming controversy surrounding Leicester's Highcross Leicester and its place in what is now regarded by many as the highest profile internet domain name dispute of all time.
Please enjoy our HD-Web-Video's of the Highcross in the Highcross Quarter. For in producing them, the Webwordwizards.com make clear the fact that we believe that the Highcross Leicester as the Highcross Quarter is now known is without doubt a development that any city would be proud to have and call its own and that we harbour no criticism of the Highcross itself.
Nothing but praise for what was created...
To reiterate, Webwordwizards own opinion is that this shopping centre and restaurant quarter covering a quarter of the heart of the city of Leicester's retail district, running along Highcross Street (where leicester's original high cross once stood) on one of its sides and even spanning and extending over the Leicester's ring road itself, the high cross quarter of leicester has totally transformed not only a rather run down back water city centre quarter but also the very perception of what Leicester is and where it aspires to be in the estimations of the people of the East Midlands.
The Highcross Quarter Name Battle - What was it?
As stated, Leicester based IT consultants and Digital Media specialists Webwordwizards along with our clients, the ladies of the wiccan group accept that Hammerson have done the people of Leicester proud in creating the Highcross quarter here.
However the Highcross naming dispute which Webwordwizards were dragged into by Hammerson does deserve to have its story not only told and have its record set straight but also firmly embedded in the historical record of the creation of the Highcross quarter leicester shopping centre. After all, most people worldwide heard about the Highcross as a result of the name battle rather than subsequent marketing that has only permeated a regional and perhaps a national audience.
In doing this it is our hope that we can be judged to have done this in as least disparaging a manner possible whilst at the same time making our points and being effective in doing so.
Who Are We?
We are Webwordwizards the Leicester Web designers and IT Consultants who successfully defended the highcrossquarter.com domain name dispute case.
Working in conjunction with our clients, ladies of the Wiccan group for whom we acted and advised throughout this case we have developed this web site that details our battle as well as their own website that details their wiccan sabbats or festivals.
Highcross Leicester - Highcross Quarter: The Naming Controversy and domain name dispute.
This next section examines in brief at this point the main elements that lead to the Highcross Leicester being called Highcross Leicester rather than highcross quarter.
What is the High Cross Quarter Website?
The High Cross Quarter website is a small Wiccan website commissioned by a group of wiccan's lead by a spritely octogenarian "Morrigan Wisecraft" based in and around Loughborough in Leicestershire.
The purpose of the website is primarily to detail the various wiccan sabbats also known as high cross quarters and cross quarters. The website was originally established on two domain names.
- Highcrossquarter.com
- Highcrossquarter.co.uk
With Additional Highcross Quarter domains set aside for future use
- Highcrossquarter.mobi
- Highcrossquarters.com
- Highcrossquarters.co.uk
Intellectual Highcross Property.
When a group of Leicestershire wiccan's (Witches) wanted to establish for themselves a website to talk about their faith and Highcross and cross quarter calendar traditions they did not expect that within a year their names and that of their High Cross Quarter website would become so intrinsically associated not only with the £350 million Highcross Leicester shopping centre or Highcross Quarter as it was called and even now is still often called, but would also become household names and text book examples for lessons in business management courses as well as courses dealing with intellectual property law and trade mark due diligence.
What neither Morrigan, the rest of the ladies of the coven or webwordwizards the leicester based web developers and IT Consultants to the wiccan group have ever sought to assert is that Hammerson should not use the name Highcross Quarter for their shopping retail, leisure and city living development. As far as we were concerned, although bearing in mind we owned the web names, nevertheless, it was their right to call it highcross quarter or highcross leicester or whatever they wanted.
And after all... they owned the Highcross Quarter trade mark and went to an awful lot of trouble, time and expense to establish that trade mark.
Trade Marking due diligence?
Some of us believe that if a trade mark attorney who would certainly, (hopefully,) have been involved in the naming process at Hammerson Plc, had uncovered the fact that the phrase "High Cross Quarter" has some significance in Wicca that Hammerson Plc may not have given that name with such enthusiasm to the centre piece development of Leicester's whole £3 billion redevelopment master plan.
Whilst it is certainly true to say that even those who consider themselves long term practitioners of wicca may be unfamiliar with the phrase "high cross quarter", it does however manifest itself quite readily in some pretty elementary internet searching... providing you think to split the initial word to its roots. "High" and "Cross".
It is our belief that no one at Hammerson did this. Not until we believe, Mark Prescod (the then Marketing Director) did so during a phone call to us at Webwordwizards.com in August 2007 where we recall a long silent pause after we directed him to verify what we were telling him for himself by checking the phrase in Google.
In the words of one reader of Leicester's "Leicester Mercury" newspaper "How is any developer supposed to know to check the witchcraft calendar when naming a development?". Of course, aside from Morrigan's reply on reading that comment which was "Well they will now" we recognise that Hammerson Plc could not possibly have known this and it would have taken admittedly very able trade mark legal assistance to uncover this information.
It was however there to be discovered, but we can not be certain if anyone had been diligent enough to think of splitting the word Highcross to its roots and putting it into good old Google with the word "quarter". Which someone ought to have done as Hammerson did in fact also file for a trade mark for the split root version "High Cross Quarter".
But what was certain is that Hammerson waited almost a year after us making them a little wiser about all this in August 2006 and then begin to pursue transfer of the names through domain name dispute litigation at UN WIPO and Nominet in June to October 2007. They did this even after announcing they were renaming their development from Highcross Quarter to Highcross Leicester.
Why did Hammerson Plc continue to pursue ownership on the Highcross Quarter domain names after announcing a U turn on the name to Highcross Leicester?
This was something that never did make sense to us or our clients... the ladies of the wiccan group for whom we acted to defend this case. If you have any suggestions for this Webwordwizards.com would very much like to hear from you... please drop us a line to janehart@webwordwizards.com
Are you a trade mark specialist with trade mark law expertise? Do you have any comments on this section? If so Webwordwizards.com would very much like to hear from you... please drop us a line to janehart@webwordwizards.com
Read more here...
Was the evolution of the name planned or was it forced by the fact that we would not sell Hammerson the Highcrossquarter internet names? We explore the evidence point by point. 1) Press Statements, 2) Trade Marking, 3) The Highcross Quarter Logo, 4) Leicester Regeneration Master Plan and more. Click here to view this section
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So went the quote of a certain elderly Leicestershire pensioner. Within hours of the endearing and feisty Mrs Wisecraft penning those now famous words, the worlds media from New Zealand and Canada to Ireland and Turkey were running the story of what was to become the highest profile domain name dispute case of all time.
This website is about that "naming controversy" and domain name dispute involving the Highcross Leicester or Highcross Quarter along with its impacts and implications including as many believe on the renaming of the £350 Million Highcross Quarter to Highcross Leicester. (Many still call the area Highcross Quarter) See...
Drama
Highcross name drama...
For the team at Leicester based IT Consultants and digital media creators Webwordwizards.com the task of defending the highcross quarter case was an onerous one involving complex intellectual property issues pertaining to both UK and international law that we don't mind saying is not exactly where our expertise lay.
Webwordwizards day to day business is normally that of providing IT Consultancy and advice, designing and managing websites. Webwordwizards are at the cutting edge and centre for digital media in leicester producing digital media such as the video's shown on this website as well as managing networks and computer systems for small and medium sized businesses and organisations here in the East Midlands and often further afield.
So to find ourselves in the centre of what unknown to us at the time was to become the highest profile domain name dispute case of all time and suddenly be besieged for newspaper, radio and TV interviews by the worldwide media really was quite a dramatic turn of events indeed.
For Mrs Wisecraft the principle wiccan involved it was a little too dramatic and she does not mind us saying that she decided to go away for a quiet spell in the West Country at the time the story broke to avoid the press and media.
Morrigan and some of the other elderly ladies of the coven were convinced all of fleet street along with Richard and Judy were ransacking rural leicestershire for them on a modern day witch hunt.
Welcome | Press
Worldwide Press Coverage...
Reuters and the Press Association picked the story up on the 19th July 2007.
Webwordwizards had worked with our client group to produce a press release which was set up on the high cross quarter websites.
Even as late as December 2007 the ladies of the wiccan group and the dispute were still in the news.
Morrigan Wisecraft was somewhat flattered and taken aback when we explained to her that her group was sharing the same headline as the Northern Rock collapse in the Leicester Mercury.
Image: Copyright Northcliffe Newspapers (Leicester Mercury)
Welcome | Drama
Do you have information for this website?
We recognise that although we played a part centre stage in the domain name battle and renaming controversy surrounding the Highcross Leicester, that their exists information and facts pertaining to this whole matter of which we are not aware.
We get information on a daily basis that we can present on this website from well wishers who often wish to remain anonymous.
If you would like to contact us and provide such information that we might consider for this website either about the Highcross Leicester, the name dispute and name change or intellectual property disputes in general please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Voicemail:
0116 2166 124
Email: 
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Mrs Wisecraft's Caption Challenge
Help us complete the captions in this light hearted look at what for us was a very serious and concerning matter.
The Highcross Name Dispute Press Coverage
Wikipedia Details Our Battle
Seen by many as the worlds foremost collection of knowledge, Wikipedia has now detailed the naming controversy involving the Highcross.
We are pleased that this is the case as the naming controversy has acted as the vehicle by which most people have so far heard of the development. See Highcross
It was interesting how someone tried to remove from the wiki article all reference to the naming dispute.
That person was however warned for vandalising the article and the naming controversy information was reinstated by a responsible wiki contributor.
Why Highcross?
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a unique text identifier which in turn is associated with a particular web based resource.
This is done by linking the text name to a unique number called an IP address which works pretty much like a phone number.
A web resource such as a web page has only one IP address which in turn can be pointed to by unlimited numbers of domain names.
Web addresses are each unique and increasingly in short supply as more and more are taken up (registered) by companies, organisations and individuals.
Most domain names are available on a first come - first served basis.
Many businesses and organisations still do not grasp the importance of considering domain names as often as they should in their day to day functions and plans.
The impact this name dispute had on people.
This website is to also explore and set out the impacts that this dispute involving Leicester's Highcross Leicester
Its developers
The ladies of the wiccan group
Webwordwizards.com the IT Consultants for the High Cross Quarter website for the wiccan group
This name dispute which spanned some 12 months from start to finish from September 2006 through to October 2007 not only has lessons for small groups but also for large corporations , in fact very hard lessons indeed for large corporations.
Lessons for other small groups...
Other small groups can benefit from the lessons learned by ourselves, Morrigan Wisecraft and the other ladies of the wiccan group who stood to lose their domain names to £7.4 billion Hammerson Plc
Our words of advice as the consultants and web designers upon whose shoulders it fell to defend this case are:
Log conversations and keep records
Always keep any emails or hard copy records you may have surrounding the discussions you have with fellow group members as well as your internet consultants.
Use email rather than phone calls.
Such records are useful in defending a WIPO arbitrated case.
Nominet cases appear to ignore the hard evidence and depend more on the "balance of probabilities" which as the improbable occurs frequently in life would rule out quite a lot including floods in England in July and £7.4 Billion developers inadvertently naming a shopping centre after the highpoints on the witchcraft calendar and then taking umbrage when local elderly witches caught wind of this and moved harder and faster to secure the name before them..
Don't be complacent by delaying to register your names...
Although this is no guarantee that you will not have issues at a later date, you should acquire your domain names at the earliest opportunity.
Domain names are in increasingly short supply so if they are available.. get them.
Once you are clear on name for your web project or venture.. you need to move very hard and fast indeed to acquire the domain names especially if you get wind of the fact that someone else may have an interest in them.
As Napoleon once said... "if you are going to take vienna... take vienna" That is very much the mentality you need to adopt about domain names.
Get them all and don't forget the hyphenated names.A good internet consultant will always know to advise you to acquire all the top level domains pertaining to your web project. This principally means the .com but also the .info, .org and .net. The lower level but useful country domain the .co.uk should also not be forgotten.
A common error by inexperienced consultants is to forget to advise you to consider also the hyphenated domain like this one for this site or for example gum-tree.com. So don't forget to acquire the hyphenated versions of your name if your name uses multiple words.
Plan for the futurePortable information access is the future so ALWAYS ALWAYS get the .mobi domain and if you can not then choose another name. It is that important.
Don't be intimidated by Corporate Goliaths who come after your domain names.
As in our case they may offer ridiculous sums many thousands of times over the actual cost of the names but if you don't want to sell then don't! .
Get advice from a good IT Consultant with domain name dispute case experience and stand your ground on clear principle. "You got there first fair and square"
Remember that the onus is on the complainant to have to prove otherwise.
All being equal (which sometimes as in the lower level highcrossquarter.co.uk case it was not) the decision will be in your favour.
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