Although the Swiss authorities retain control of the www.ch.ch name, which acts as the official "Swiss Portal", plans to create separate but linked portals in all of the country's official languages were thwarted by Mr Frei's site's occupancy of the domains, on which he offered a free e-mail service and Swiss themed merchandise for sale.

In order to bring an end to the long-running dispute, the matter was brought before the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organisation, which has the authority to settle such disputes, and a WIPO arbitrator last week handed the Swiss government control of the names.