The Australian Fairfax press WIPO has revealed that Crikey, the common Australian word has an official second meeting with regards to the Crikey online gossip and news e-zine. WIPO ruled the crikey.com domain name should be controlled by Crikey following a virtual real estate battle which spanned over five years. The company own crikey.com.au but many people were still referring to or typing in crikey.com to the search engine. Newspapers and magazines frequently made the same error referring to the publication.

An arbitrator found the previous owner, Martin Hallier of Burwood, Victoria, had bought the domain with the intention to "cause mischief or obtain an advantage". The domain was legitimately registered by an American, Mr Smith, in 1997, three years before Stephen Mayne established the Crikey e-zine.

In 2002, Mr Smith sold the domain to Martin Hallier of Burwood, Victoria, for $US7500 . He used it to put up a web page with a picture of Steve Irwin, and announced he would sell the domain for $US45,000. In 2006, Mr Hallier replaced Steve Irwin with reproductions of controversial Danish cartoons which featured the prophet Mohammed.

WIPO aribitrator Alan Limbury stated it could not be established that Martin Hallier was the real name of the owner of the domain. He had listed his address on a fake street name and gave another businesses phone number.

"The apparent provision of false contact details reinforces the conclusion that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith," the arbitrator found. "The opportunity to cause mischeif or obtain an advantage by acquiring the crikey.com Domain Name would have been apparent to anyone."

Crikey's publisher, Diana Gribble, said she understood the decision could still be appealed by Mr Hallier, meaning the domain cannot be transferred for another week. "[But] we are very very pleased," she said. "It was our contention that it was a sprawling operation in search of money and we had the right to challenge it. It wasn't a huge commercial bother but when he put the cartoons of Mohammed up I got seriously worried. I thought it was a danger to ourselves and our staff."

Names such as Hilary Clinton, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey jnr have all sought WIPO decisions to reclaim domains using their names. In 2000, Nicole Kidman reclaimed NicoleKidmanNude.com. After Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie chose a name for their child Shiloh, they quietly instructed lawyers to register 24 websites including the name.