Tom Cruise sues for TomCruise.com

Little Tom has big fight on his hands

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Entertainment, 9th May 2006 15:37 GMT

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Scientologist Tom Cruise has taken the owner of TomCruise.com to domain name arbitrator WIPO to win it back.

The Hollywood star, and lead of recently released Mission Impossible III, is a bit slow off the mark - the domain was registered in November 1996, and other super-celebs have been going to WIPO for years trying to win back their namesake domains.

The domain owner is none other than the world's biggest cybersquatter, Jeff Burgar, registered under his Alberta Hot Rods company name.

Burgar has been referred to WIPO's headquarters so many times he could take up a permanent residence there. And he knows exactly how to pick holes in WIPO's case law.

He has won against Bruce Springsteen (for, surprise surprise, BruceSpringsteen.com), and Kevin Spacey (for KevinSpacey.com, having lost kevinspacy.com only a few months earlier in another arbitration forum, the NAF), but has, however, lost against many others, including Michael Crichton, Pierce Brosnan and Celine Dion.

What has taken Tom so long to stake a claim to his domain? Who knows? But maybe it's because the internet has recently become a Tom Cruise mockery extravaganza, with, just for starters, tomcruiseisnuts.com, a video of Cruise apparently killing Oprah Winfrey, and any number of references to that South Park episode. ®

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