Foundation Sues Over Domain Name — Michael Phelps

Swimmer’s foundation goes following domain name owner.

The non-profit Michael Phelps Foundation, established by the Olympic swimmer, has sued to get the domain name MichaelPhelpsFoundation.com.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, names Domains by Proxy, Inc., a domain whois proxy service, and Does 1-10 as defendants. It is typical for a proxy service to be named in a lawsuit and it is typically dropped once the proxy service transfers the domain back to its real owner.

The domain name was registered in 2008, just two days following Phelps won his record setting eighth gold medal in a single Olympics. Phelps had not yet started his foundation.

The domain was originally registered by a Minnesota man ahead of the whois proxy service was used. The author of the web site at MichaelPhelpsFoundation.com claims that he had good intentions in registering the domain name:

To be quite clear, MPF was created as a “foundation” or a home “base” where fans, like yourself, can come to share, chat, research, debate, contribute, and connect with one another on the past, present and future surrounding, who some are considering to be the greatest hero in history, Michael Phelps.

It wasn’t until following MPF was created that we heard that Michael Phelps was, in fact, going to establish a fresh swimming foundation.

A blog on the web site has two entries from 2008.