In British Telecommunications Plc (and Others) v. One In A Million (and Others), the Court of Appeals sustained the High Court's decision in finding passing off and trademark infringement to prevent speculation in the use and sale of domain names containing well-known trademarks and granted injunctive relief.

The defendants were engaged in the business of registering well-known names, including BRITISH TELECOM, MARKS & SPENCER and VIRGIN, and then offering the registered domain names for sale to the true owners.

The Court held, in effect, that the defendants' activities constituted passing off or the threat of passing off. It would appear from this decision that the mere registration of a well-known domain name can in certain circumstances amount to passing off and can be enjoined. The Court viewed the defendants' intention in registering well-known names as an effort to appropriate the true owners' goodwill; there was thus a threat of passing off and the registration of these names amounted to the possession of instruments of fraud. The Court of Appeals agreed with the ruling of the lower Court which had held that the domain names were "... chosen to resemble the names and marks of other people and are plainly intended to deceive".

It was also held that the defendants were clearly seeking to infringe the plaintiffs' rights in breach of Section 10(3) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. The defendants argued that, in order for there to be an infringement of a trademark under this section of the Act, there had to be use of the trademark as a trademark, that the use had to denote origin and that the use had to be confusing use. The Court of Appeals was not satisfied that Section 10(3) required such use, but indicated that, if it did, the threats to infringe had been established, that the registered domain names denoted origin and were confusingly similar to registered trademarks; thus the defendants' activities were held to constitute trademark infringement according to the statutory definition.