A recruiter alleges that a rival bought an internet domain name similar to his own to steal his business.

Carl Thomson says he is considering legal action against Jerry Harper, of Bristol-based sales firm First Selection, for possible loss of earnings over a domain name he contends is too similar to his own.

Thomson worked for Harper as a consultant from October 2005 to April 2006. He then decided to set up on his own, so he created Salesforce Recruitment, which started trading on 1 September. At that time, he also bought the domain name www.salesforce recruitment.co.uk.

Recently, he discovered that the domain name www.salesforcerecruitment.com had been bought by Harper on 16 October 2006.

Thomson told Recruiter: "When I left, it was amicable but he appears to have done this to spite me because I took some of his old clients — ones which I got for him — with me."

David Taylor, a partner at Lovells' Paris office and an expert on internet law, told Recruiter that Thomson may be able to bring a 'passing off' case — one company claiming to have an association with another when it does not.

He said: "Cases of this type can be hard to prove — it depends on the evidence and who bought what and when. One case took us five years and a lot of money to sort out. A strongly-worded solicitor's letter should do the trick."

Liverpool-based law firm DWF suggested to Recruiter another potential way of resolving the dispute.

Robert Sheldon, an associate in the firm's commercial department, said: "He could go to an independent body such as ICANN — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — which has a cheap and reasonably quick way of settling disputes like this."

Harper could not be reached for comment.