GENEVA - U.S. soccer's most expensive player, teenage prodigy Freddy Adu, has won his cybersquatting case against a man who claimed to be preparing a fan-based website, an international arbitrator ruled on Thursday. Adu, a Ghanaian-born 15-year-old who plays for Washington's DC United, filed a complaint against Frank Fushille, a soccer fan who registered the domain name freddyadu.com in 2002. Richard Lyon, an arbitrator appointed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), ordered the domain name transferred to Adu after ruling that Fushille had acted in bad faith. Fushille had contacted Adu's agent seeking majority ownernship of the disputed site, participation in corporate advertising negotiations and admission to all matches. Italy's Francesco Totti, Dutch defender Jaap Stam and Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole are among other soccer players to have won decisions at WIPO, a United Nations agency offering a fast-track, low-cost procedure to resolve domain name disputes. Adu - the highest paid player in professional U.S. soccer after being the first pick in Major League Soccer's superdraft - also successfully claimed his name had trademark protection even if it was not formally registered, the ruling said. A domain name is automatically transferred within 10 days unless the loser launches a court case challenging the decision.

Reuters