Madonna Gets Back Name

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/14/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

An international panel in Geneva, Switzerland, of the World Intellectual Property Organization unanimously ordered yesterday that Madonna is now able to take over the Web site Madonna.com from New Jersey entrepreneur Dan Parisi, who had launched the site with adult-oriented materials in May of 1998. The Material Mom, said the WIPO panel, legally owns U.S. trademark registrations for the name Madonna when it comes to entertainment services and related goods. Madonna had filed her complaint against Parisi in July. In the meantime, he took the adult material off his Madonna site and replaced it with his defense against the pop star's legal action against him. Last night, the following message went up on the site: "We lost the WIPO case today. Our attorneys have asked us to keep quiet in regards (sic) to the decision until we figure what if anything we are going to do." In similar cybersquatting cases recently, the WIPO ruled in favor of Julia Roberts and British rock band Jethro Tull. Sting, however, lost his case to win back sting.com -- because Sting is not his real name (it's Gordon Matthew Sumner).