Sofia Vergara Finally Awarded Domain Name Registration Of Sofiavergara.Org

After a long drawn out legal dispute that even require arbitration and mediation by the WIPO Arbitration and Medication Center, the celebrity was awarded ownership of the domain name. The domain name registration of SofiaVergara.org first took place back in July, 2014 and was being used by the respondent as a means to generate ad revenue. The majority of the content on the website was monetized, and the site discussed celebrities and had pay-per-click advertising for every post.

The legal dispute stretched over such a lengthy period due to the need for the complainant, which was Ms Vergara in this case, was to prove that the registration of the domain was unlawful and required legal intervention.

Mr Vergara had to specify that she did not authorize domain name registration for a domain with her name to the respondent, and that she was in no way associated with it at the moment. Further, the domain name had been derived from her own name, and the domain owner did not hold any trademarks which would allow them the right to claim ownership over the domain.

The website was being used to source traffic towards a different gossip website called justjared. The articles that appeared on SofiaVergara.org originated from this secondary website. It also came to light that the respondent was well aware of Ms Vergara when they registered the domain, since they initially claimed that the website was meant to serve as a fan site for the celebrity.

The arbitration panel of WIPO ultimately found that the use of the sofiavergara.org domain by the respondent was in bad faith. The respondent used the domain to generate ad revenue, and the content posted on the website was not only irrelevant to the domain name, but also meant to simply leverage celebrity gossip for the purpose of making money

As of now, the domain has been transferred to Ms Vergara and she has taken possession of it.