The domain name Rihanna.com was offered for sale on DNForum back in June of 2009. According to the updated thread, the domain name was later sold for an undisclosed amount of money. As you are probably aware, Rihanna happens to be the name of a popular musician, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.
While looking through recent UDRP filings at the National Arbitration Forum, I noticed that there was a UDRP filed for Rihanna.com. At the moment, there is a Network Solutions coming soon page on Rihanna.com, and there’s nothing on the landing page that mentions the musician, who currently holds the #11 spot on the Billboard 100.
The moral of this post is that if you have a domain name that could potentially be seen as infringing on another company’s trademark (which can happen even with the most generic of names), you need to be cautious where you list it for sale and what you say when you list it. Assuming it was the singer’s legal team that filed the UDRP, I am sure this line didn’t help the owner, “Rihanna.com Correct Spelling!”
Soon enough will will know if the complainant saw the sale on DNForum, elsewhere, or if they targeted it without having seen whether or not it was for sale, but it’s something to keep in mind when you are selling a domain name.
There have been other cases where the complainant cited a for sale listing on a domain forum as part of its complaint. Some of these cases include RymanAuditorium.com, EliteModels.com, WWF.com, and AirDeccan.com
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/burningkarma/ / CC BY 2.0
Yep.
In many cases, the best thing to do is to not list the name at all… and certainly don’t contact potential buyers (who hold a TM for the term).
If you have a risky name, try to use it in good faith, don’t put anything on the site associated with a TM holder, and certainly don’t contact those TM holders trying to solicit a sale.
– Aron
Famous people names are so risky even beyond UDRP. Anti-cybersquatting laws apply to domain names that match the names of famous people.
This is worth reading: http://tcattorney.typepad.com/domainnamedispute/2008/01/personal-and-pr.html
lets be honest the name was meant to trade off the singers fame period there is no other reason to own the name one could argue they have legit rights
‘ to it is the owners name rhianna ? does he know another rhianna? doubtful anyone that goes there is looking for the singer so you either wants to profit from the traffic or hope she is willing to cut a check google rhianna and pick a page they are all about the same person from 1 – 55 the case is stacked against him and the correct spelling thing is anoter nail in the coffin .
my guess it will just look like another cyberquatter. IMO only legit use would be a fan site but then a fan would give her the name if she wanted it lol
This is a legit first name, just like Bob.com how many famous Bob’s are there etc, it is not even her first name, if she wants it, she should pay for it, best thing to do is get a dog and name it Rhiwhatever and make it a fan page for your dog lol,