Spacey v. Burgar

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In 1996 Jeffrey Burgar, a resident of Alberta, Canada registered the domain name “kevinspacey.com” which he used to promote his website “Celebrity 1000”. In 2000 Kevin Spacey the actor wrote to Mr. Burgar and requested he cease the use of “kevinspacey.com” and assign the website to him. Mr. Burgar refused to surrender the domain name and Kevin Spacey subsequently filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles, California alleging misappropriation of his image. 

In the federal court case Mr. Burgar filed a motion to dismiss the case and argued that since he lived in Canada and the lawsuit was in California, the court did not have jurisdiction over him. Kevin Spacey’s legal team tried to argue that because Mr. Burgar’s website focused on the Los Angeles based entertainment industry, he specifically targeted this area of the country and therefore the court should have jurisdiction over him. On this issue the court found in favor of Mr. Burgar because he lived in Canada. The court then dismissed the case and did not hear the image misappropriation case on the merits.

After the initial loss in federal court in 2001, Kevin Spacey’s legal team filed a UDRP complaint in 2002 alleging that the domain name infringed on Mr. Spacey’s common law rights to his name and likeness. The panel found that Kevin Spacey had common law trademark rights to his name in part because “a celebrity’s name can serve as a trademark when used to identify the celebrity’s performance services.” After establishing that the actor had intellectual property rights to the name “Kevin Spacey” the panel found that Mr. Burgar did not have a legitimate interest in using the name “kevinspacey.com” and furthermore had likely registered the domain name in bad faith to divert web traffic to his own website. On August 1, 2002 the panel ruled that “kevinspacey.com” should be transferred over to Kevin Spacey.

This case illustrates another advantage UDRP filings have over lawsuits. In addition to the quick and cost-effective nature of the UDRP process, UDRP actions can be filed against domain name holders in foreign countries. UDRP filings are not bound by the same jurisdictional rules that United States courts are bound to.