Lady Gaga has frequently shouted out one of her biggest fansites, GagaDaily.com, but she's had less praise for another website devoted to Gaga worship, LadyGaga.org. In fact, she sued the latter's proprietor in an attempt to claim its name for herself. According to a legal ruling posted on Adforum (via Billboard), Gaga complained Maulin V. Shah registered LadyGaga.org's domain name "in bad faith" because she wanted "to capitalize on and profit from the success and notoriety of Lady Gaga and to keep her from owning and using her name as a web site."
Gaga argued she had "released at least one single" three months before Shah registered LadyGaga.org, which sort of only proves this woman is a good talent scout, since nobody was really knocking down Gaga's door for quite some time ("Just Dance" arrived in April 2008 and LadyGaga.org was registered in June; the song didn't hit the Billboard Hot 100 until August). The panel agreed Lady Gaga does indeed own the trademark on her moniker, which she registered in 2009, but said the star was unable to prove Shah was trying to "take advantage of Complainant's fame." Request denied.
So what's going on at LadyGaga.org that has Stefani Germanotta so bent out of shape? Beats us. This resembles any other fansite, albeit it a poorly designed one (sorry, Maulin!) with headlines shouting out the singer's MTV Europe Awards nominations, her upcoming performance at Bill Clinton's big charity event, and her recent Emmy win. It isn't flashy, but it sure looks like a labor of love, and there's little chance anyone would confuse this lo-fi site for the flashy, multimedia-heavy experience that is LadyGaga.com.
[Photo: LadyGaga.org]