Feb 6, 2007 9:00 am US/Pacific
Keith Urban Files Suit Over Web Site
Singer Says New Jersey Man's Web Site Misleads His Fans
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Country star Keith Urban is suing a New Jersey artist who shares his name.
The singer, who is married to Nicole Kidman and recently left rehab, claims in a lawsuit filed Feb. 2 that the other Keith Urban owns the URL Keithurban.com and is trying to mislead users in search of information on the singer, the Smoking Gun Web site reports.
The Smoking Gun has posted a copy of a lawsuit filed in Nashville on its Web site.
The message on the Web site of New Jersey's Keith Urban says, "You have reached the site of Keith Urban. To those who don't know, oil painting is one of my hobbies." It includes a gallery of oil paintings that are for sale.
The Smoking Gun reports that while the site does not list prices of the paintings, a previous version of it offered $93.50 prints of paintings such as "Al Bundy for President" and "Missing Child."
The lawsuit obtained by the Smoking Gun says that the country singer is seeking a preliminary injunction which bars Urban from using the domain name. Eventually, the star would like the registration of Keithurban.com transferred to him.
A request for comment from the singer's rep was not returned on Tuesday.
Nicole Kidman's ex-husband, Tom Cruise, was involved in a similar lawsuit last year. In a judgment that was made public July 21, arbitrators ruled that the Network Operations Center/Alberta Hot Rods misused the domain name TomCruise.com and ordered that it be turned over to the actor.
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