The owner of the domain WarGames.com, Rogers Cadenhead, has recently posted on his blog that the MGM movie studio has filed a legal complaint against him concerning his domain name. Cadenhead has owned WarGames.com since April 1998 and just started operating an online video game shop under the domain name.

MGM claims to be the rightful owner of it, because they produced the movie “War Games” in 1983 and filed a trademark for it. However, MGM filed the trademark in 2001, which is three years after Cadenhead originally registered his domain. Therefore, Cadenhead might have a chance to win the legal battle with the movie studio if he can prove he registered the domain in good faith. The studio’s sudden interest in Cadenhead’s domain can be explained with the fact that MGM is producing a “War Games” sequel for 2007 release.

MGM is being represented by Nathan J. Hole, an intellectual property attorney who has won several arbitration cases using the UDRP. For example, he won cases concerning DellCustomerSupport.com, DellComputerSucks.com, DellSite.com, wwwDellcom.com and other domains infringing the Dell TM. Hole has already represented MGM before in a case concerning the domain Rocky.com, which he won too.

Rogers Cadenhead is no stranger to potentially TM-sensitive domains. He registered BenedictXVI.com in 2005 before the new Pope was appointed, but later donated the domain to a New York-based charity.