The National Arbitration Forum has said that a ruling has been issued in favor of alternative rock band Pearl Jam regarding the rights to pearljams.com.

Pearl Jam filed a complaint electronically with the National Arbitration Forum on November 8, 2005, asserting legal rights to the domain name pearljams.com. The address was registered with Domain Systems Inc. by Vertical Axis Inc. on August 25, 2005.

The arbitration panel said that the domain name is confusingly similar to PEARL JAM trademark, which was registered on August 15, 1995 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Panel concluded that Vertical Axis Inc. did not have legitimate rights to, or interest in, the disputed Web address, and was using the address in bad faith for its own commercial gain.

National Arbitration Forum Decision