Celebrity Names as Web Site Addresses: Extending the Domain of Publicity Rights to the Internet

At present, the published judicial decisions on domain name disputes generally involve business conflicts over the use of registered marks, and courts apply the law of trademark to govern the rights at issue. Trademark law regulates the use of registered markets, not unregistered names such as celebrity names. Thus, trademark law cannot be applied to more recent disputes involving famous names, creating a hole in the fabric of the law. On the other hand, the right of publicity allows celebrities and other well known public figures to control the commercial exploitation of their identities. It recognizes the inherent economic value in a celebrity name. This Comment argues that courts should apply publicity rights to celebrity names used as domain names.