July 25, 2006 | Celeb Watch

Tom master of his domain

Tom Cruise has won his claim to TomCruise.com, which he wrested this week from notorious cybersquatter Jeff Burgar. Burgar fought Cruise's claim to the bitter end at a hearing of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which ruled in the movie star's favor.

Burgar has registered hundreds of domains related to celebrity names, which he redirects to his own site Celebrity1000.com. He argued that TomCruise.com was a fan site and that people who came across it were only expecting information about Cruise, not the star's own site. He also claimed that Cruise's 10-year delay in taking action to claim the domain was proof that he did not believe Burgar  had been acting in bad faith.

But WIPO agreed with Cruise's three arguments: that he has "common law trademark and service mark rights" in the term "Tom Cruise"; Burgar was making money from the domain through selling ads on the Celebrity1000 website; and that Internet users were likely to be confused and think that Tom Cruise was affiliated personally with the website.

It didn't help Burgar's case that he had previously lost similar disputes to Celine Dion, Michael Crichton and Kevin Spacey.

So now Tom has a whole new platform to spew his Scientology nonsense and assert his heterosexuality. Suddenly a redirect to Celebrity1000.com doesn't sound so bad.

• Tom Cruise wins TomCruise.com [The Register]