A United Nations arbitrator has awarded Rita Rudner the right to the Internet domain name ritarudner.com.
The comedian won the case against Internetco Corp., of Lehighton, Penn., which had registered the domain name. The World Intellectual Property Organization on Tuesday ordered the Web address transferred to her.
The actress, performer and writer, who starred in the films "Peter's Friends" and "A Weekend in the Country," said in her complaint that she had to register a different Web address, www.ritafunny.com, but would "dearly love" her own name back.
Internetco Corp. did not reply to the complaint. Arbitrator David H. Bernstein said the company had registered the names of several other famous people and the sites contained links to sexually explicit material.
He ruled that Internetco had no legitimate interest in the name and that it should be handed over to Rudner.
Previous cases involving celebrity names have brought mixed results. Julia Roberts and the family of Jimi Hendrix have won domain names, but British rock star Sting lost his bid to take control of sting.com.
