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Spike Lee Wins Cybersquatting Case

GENEVA – Arbitrators have handed acclaimed movie director Spike Lee a victory in his battle against Mercedita Kyamko, a cybersquatter based in the Philippines, who was using Lee's name in a domain that redirects unsuspecting surfers to an adult web site.

The director of 25 films, Lee filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against Kyamko after the domain name "spikelee.com" was registered in 1999.

WIPO named Canadian attorney Edward Chiasson as the neutral arbitrator charged with ruling on the dispute over the domain name, and Chiasson indeed found that the redirection of the URL to an adult site was evidence of a "bad faith" registration.

As a result of the ruling, within 10 days the domain will be transferred automatically to Lee, unless a court challenge disputing WIPO's action is brought by Kyamko.

At the time of this writing, www.spikelee.com was still being redirected to www.clubhongkong.com.

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