Famed music artist Madonna has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in an attempt to win the rights to Madonna.com.

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Madonna.com was originally a porn site, according to reports on ZDnet, but now acts as a publicity site for domain owner Dan Parisi's battles with Madonna's lawyers.

Parisi, who bought the domain name in 1998 for US$20,000, also owns Whitehouse.com.

"There are 275 worldwide trademarks using the word "Madonna" including 75 Federal and State trademarks in the United States and Canada alone," according to a statement available at Madonna.com. "There are 87 active websites using "madonna" in (sic) thier web address including madonna.net and madonna.org."

Parisi claims to have rejected all offers to sell the domain name to Madonna herself. He was in the process of transferring the domain to the Madonna Rehabiltation Hospital when the complaint was raised with the WIPO.

WIPO, which recently forced cybersquatters to give up 40 web sites containing the word Yahoo!, will decide who gets the Madonna.com domain name.

Hitsquad says: The lesson here is to make sure you protect your name online by registering a relevant domain name as soon as possible.

 

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• www.sp-jn.co.uk - peanutlegsmell 09:55:18 8/26/00 (0)
• she won't win - ralph 21:09:20 8/23/00 (2)
  • Re: She won't win - norman@world-ol.com 07:15:01 1/04/01 (1)
    • Empty! - world-ol.com 07:17:06 1/04/01 (0)