January 27, 2006 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Grammy award-winning musician Stevie Wonder has won legal rights to the domain name stevie-wonder.com after discovering it was being used by another party.
The National Arbitration Forum found that the domain name was registered by the Respondent, Lad, on April 27, 2000, and resolved to a Web page that featured information on the Motown legend and links to various competing and non-competing commercial Web sites.
Ruling in Wonder’s favor, the NAF arbitrator concluded that Wonder had established common law rights in the Stevie Wonder trademark based on his music career, which spans more than 40 years. The arbitrator found stevie-wonder.com “confusingly similar” to the Stevie Wonder trademark, and that the respondent had registered and used the domain name without Wonder’s permission or consent.
The respondent, who did not submit a response in the case, was found to lack legitimate rights to, or interest in, the domain name, which was subsequently ordered to be transferred to Wonder. The decision was reached in accordance with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an alternative to lengthy and expensive trademark lawsuits.
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