The rock star Bruce Springsteen has lost his bid to evict a fan club from an Internet website sporting his name.
In a split decision, a three-member panel ruled that the Canadian Jeff Burgar and the Bruce Springsteen Club had not violated the New Jersey musician's rights by registering the Web site brucespringsteen.com.
The setback for "The Boss" was a rare loss for a famous star before the United Nations agency which protects trademarks and patents, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Top actresses Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, Venus and Serena Williams of tennis fame, pop singer Madonna, French film stars Isabelle Adjani and Alain Delon and the estate of American rock legend Jimi Hendrix had all won such cases.
Only British rock star Sting had lost a similar contest.
Cybersquatting - often done by people who register famous names as domains in the hope of making a quick profit - is seen as the hottest online issue among celebrities, experts say.
But the majority on the dispute panel ruled that Burgar had "demonstrated that he has some rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and (Springsteen) has failed to demonstrate that that the domain name was registered and has been used in bad faith".
They found that Springsteen had put forward no evidence that Burgar had ever tried to sell the domain name.
More than 2,000 cases have been filed since December 1999, when WIPO's arbitration centre began receiving cybersquatting cases. Of the roughly 1,300 cases completed, about 80 percent have ordered sites to be transferred.
