 Cruise recently topped the Forbes power list |
Arbitrators have ruled that a "cyber squatter" misused a web address containing Tom Cruise's name which must be returned to the actor. A judge for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) said tomcruise.com had been used to sell goods unconnected with the actor.
He added that Cruise fans had been diverted to a different internet site.
Other celebrities who have also won rulings against the same operation include Celine Dion and Kevin Spacey.
Legitimate
The judgement, which was delivered online, identified the web pirate as Network Operations Centre/Alberta Hot Rods.
It concluded that Cruise had proved his case on three critical grounds - that the domain name was "identical or confusingly similar" to his own, that Alberta Hot Rods had no legitimate rights to it, and that it had been used "in bad faith".
Authors Jeffrey Archer and Michael Crichton are also among the famous names whose names have been used to promote unofficial websites.
In the Crichton case, which was settled in 2002, Alberta Hot Rods was found to have failed to prove rights to the domain name or possess legitimate reasons for its use.
The WIPO is an agency of the United Nations, founded in 1967 and based in Geneva.
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