Madonna.com

We lost the WIPO case today. Our attorneys have asked us to keep quiet in regards to the decision until we figure what if anything we are going to do. One thing that we will say is that we were not happy that the lead panelist in the Madonna.com case Mr. Partridge is a trademark attorney who was the plaintiff lawyer in the Brunswick.com WIPO case D2000-0313. We also own Brunswicksucks.com and he knows that and yet he is lead panelist in this case. It is not fair to respondents to have plaintiff lawyers who represent complaintants to also sit as judges in these hearings. It is in their best interest to expand the laws to help their clients to the detriment of the respondents and of the general public. This case was about whether big business has the right to claim exclusive ownership of common words in the English Language and to take them out of the public domain and they ruled that big business has that right.

They had to prove that we did not have any rights in the word Madonna and we registered and used the name in bad faith. To say that we have no rights to the word "Madonna" when it is a word in the dictionary and has been in the Public domain for over 2000 years is not right. The domain name was in use by us and others for over 5 years before the Domain Dipute was initiated and they also say we have no rights from that use. The panel said that basically any use on the Internet other than by Madonna Ciccone or as a religous site would be bad faith use. "The record supports Respondent’s claim that it used the domain name in connection with commercial services prior to notice of the dispute. However, Respondent has failed to provide a reasonable explanation for the selection of Madonna as a domain name. Although the word “Madonna” has an ordinary dictionary meaning not associated with Complainant, nothing in the record supports a conclusion that Respondent adopted and used the term “Madonna” in good faith based on its ordinary dictionary meaning." How does that explain the hundreds of businesses that use Madonna as thier name including Club Madonna in Florida (which is chain of Nude dance clubs) who has used the name since 1994 even though Ms. Ciccone threatened to sue them. We can open a business named Madonna on any street corner in America but cannot do so on the Internet. We are not talking about a coined word like Exxon or Kodak that you would need permission from those companies to name a business after thier name. Here is another quote form the decision "Respondent cites examples of other parties besides Complainant who also have rights in the mark MADONNA, but that does not aid its cause. The fact that others could demonstrate a legitimate right or interest in the domain name does nothing to demonstrate that Respondent has such right or interest." We bought the domain name madonna.com because we were asked about it for some strange reason during a taping of a TV interview that was to air nationally. I was told it was fine to use the domain name since it was a generic name used by many parties so I approached the owner who had it for sale for $20,000 and I purchased it. The site was a money loser and was closed in the Spring of 1999 and we then offered the domain name to both Madonna University and Madonna Hospital which are both Catholic Institutions. Madonna Hospital contacted us first and we made the deal with them.

There were no documents put into the record in regards to any of our correspondence or contracts with the Hospital or University except for the June 8, 2000 which also appears on this site. It was a tactical decision by the lawyers which obviously backfired on us since it allowed the Panel to make inferences on our dealings with the Hospital and University which they then made in the complaintants favor without ever seeing any documents on the matter. The panel acknowledges in the decision that there was not documents on the matter and could have asked for them since there was not rebuttal period. We were going to put them in on rebuttal along with a recent letter from the hospital but there was no rebuttal period. I am going to give this advice to any domain name holder out there to make sure you put everything in the record up front that you think is relevant because if you do not and leave the panel to make inferences they will more likely than not use it to help the complaintant which is exactly what happened here. Here is a quote from the panel, "Third, Respondent claims that its offer to transfer the domain name to the Madonna Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, is a legitimate noncommercial use under Paragraph 4(c)(iii) of the Policy. We disagree. The record is incomplete on these negotiations. Respondent has failed to disclose the specifics of its proposed arrangement with Madonna Hospital".

The panel also said that a Non-U.S. trademark we held for Madonna could not show any rights for us. A non U.S. mark can be used to take away a domain name from an American Citizen such as was done in barcelona.com and tonsil.com in previous WIPO hearings. This panel held that a Non- U.S. tradeamrk could not be used to protect this domain name. Under ICANN all worldwide trademarks are supposed to be held equal but this panel chose to ignore that fact. They stated "Although recognized by certain treaties, registration in Tunisia does not prevent a finding of infringement in jurisdictions outside Tunisia." Tell that to the U.S. based owners of barcelona.com who lost thier WIPO case to an entity using trademarks from Spain and tonsil.com who lost their case to an entity from Germany using a German Trademark. Our trademark was dated June 4, 1998 which was one year before any ICANN rules were put in place. Click here to get copy of the decision.

Here are some articles about the dispute
Zd Net News-Madonna wants her name back CNet News-Madonna.com embroiled in domain ownership spat Wired-Material Girls wants her good name. StatePaper-Nebraska Hospital Caught in Madonna Trademark Spat

Click here to see one of letters from their attorney. We have steadfastly stated that the domain name is not for sale. Click here to see one of letters from our attorney. We were in the process of donating the domain name madonna.com to Madonna Rehabiltation Hospital who owns madonna.org when the WIPO domain name challenge was initiated. We had finalized an agreement in June of 2000 to transfer the domain name to Madonna Hospital.

We have never offered to sell this domain to Madonna Louise Ciccone the singer and have rebuffed all offers from her to purchase the domain name madonna.com. There are thousands of individuals throughout the world who have "Madonna" as a first or last name, thousands of businesses worldwide who use the name "Madonna" as their business name and there are 275 worldwide trademarks using the word "Madonna" including 75 Federal and State trademarks in the United States and Canada alone. There are 87 active websites using "madonna" in thier web address including madonna.net and madonna.org. Madonna.org is operated by Madonna Rehabiltation Hospital and Madonna University operates a website at munet.edu. The name madonna has many meanings as Ms. Ciccone herself stated during a Larry King Live Interview and she also stated it is a great name to live up to during that interview. She was named after the Virgin Mary as was her mother and hundreds of thousands of other people throughout the world over the past 2000 years. We do not believe that because Ms. Ciccone named her act after the Virgin Mary that gives her the right to stop any other party from using the word "madonna" as a title of their website.