Cybersquatter Stings Sting

By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Wednesday November 12, 1997 12:00 AM EST

Sting, 48, has lost a case at the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to evict Michael Urvan, an American who is the holder of the Internet address www.sting.com, reports Reuters. As such, the British pop superstar becomes the first celebrity to suffer such a defeat at the hands of a cybersquatter. (Julia Roberts, for instance, won her case.) Sting's defeat came about, the WIPO panel said, because he failed to prove bad faith or that the musician -- whose real name is Gordon Sumner -- had registered the name Sting as a trademark.