Famous journalist and former CNN talk show host wins cybersquatting dispute over his personal name.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has ruled in favor of Piers Morgan in a cybersquatting dispute over the domain name PiersMorgan.com.
Morgan filed the case against a respondent identified only as “W NA” in the UK. The domain was registered in 2005 and has since resolved to various parked pages.
In the decision, panelist Nick J. Gardner found that Morgan had unregistered trademark rights in his name, citing his long and well-known career as a journalist and television personality. The panel also noted that his talk show “Piers Morgan Uncensored” has been streamed more than a billion times on YouTube and that he has more than 2.3 million Instagram followers.
The respondent did not submit a formal response to the complaint, but a legal representative contacted WIPO multiple times.
Gardner concluded that the respondent registered the domain because of Morgan’s fame and likely did so with the intent of capitalizing on it. He cited earlier cases involving celebrity names, including those involving Beyoncé and Halle Berry, as precedent for a finding of bad faith.
“…registration of a domain name because it corresponds to the name of a well-known celebrity, with a view to in some way exploiting that fact, amounts to registration in bad faith,” Gardner wrote.
The panel ordered the domain name to be transferred to Morgan.
J A Kemp LLP represented Morgan. Tidman Legal appeared on behalf of the respondent but did not submit a formal response.
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