Jeffrey Archer wins JeffreyArcher.com

Bad faith judgment

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 15th June 2006 09:02 GMT

Free whitepaper – Dell solid state disk (SSD) drives

Politician, novelist, lord and perjurer Jeffrey Archer has won his namesake dotcom - JeffreyArcher.com.

The controversial Tory peer took legendary cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to WIPO on 5 April, a single panellist was appointed on 18 May, and the decision made on 1 June after Burgar failed to respond to the complaint.

Burgar was found to have registered and used the domain in bad faith - redirecting it to his Celebrity1000.com website - as well as having no connected to the great man himself.

The decision extensively quotes previous cases against both Burgar and examples where famous people have been handed back namesake domains, including three British writers - Margaret Drabble, Julian Barns and Louis De Bernieres.

Other famous names that Archer's lawyers likened their client's predicament to included Larry King, Pierce Brosnan, Celine Dion, Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra and Michael Crichton. The judge pointed out that Lord Archer was in good company when he noted that he was "a well-known politician, novelist, playwright, actor, screenwriter, public speaker and charity fundraiser of international repute".

It is also hard to argue, sadly, against the finding that "Jeffrey Archer is an internationally known writer" although we are not sure what to make of the Swedish pannelist's announcement that "there can be no dispute that there is goodwill in the name Jeffrey Archer".

Archer's official site can be found at jeffreyarcher.co.uk. Currently jeffreyarcher.com still directs to Burgar's Celebrity1000.com.