by , 11:10 AM EST, November 23rd, 2005

Ben Cohen has given up his battle to keep the itunes.co.uk domain name, according to ZDNet. Cohen purchased the domain name in 2000, then lost it to Apple in March 2005.

Cohen claimed that he registered the domain name, unaware that Apple was trademarking "iTunes." Apple offered him US$5,000 for the name, and Cohen countered with a price of $50,000. His company, CyberBritain, also pointed the domain name to Napster's Web site.

Nominet, the UK's domain name registry, reassigned the domain name in March after Apple cited that it holds the iTunes trademark. Claire Milne, a Nominet adjudicator, awarded Apple the domain name, stating that CyberBritain's act was an "abusive registration," meaning that the company was trying to take unfair advantage of Apple's rights.

Mr. Cohen then filed a case in British court, bypassing the UK's standard domain name dispute process as managed through Nominet. The court threw out the case because he failed to follow the proper appeal procedure, which CyberBritain eventually appealed.

Mr. Cohen and CyberBritain have now withdrawn the appeal, and will no longer attempt to regain the iTunes.co.uk domain name.