Celia Cruz estate wins domain battle

June 27, 2024

MIAMI — Celia Cruz may have been known as the Queen of Salsa, but when it came to the Web, she had no domain. For the past decade, a Cayman Island-based corporation has held control over the celiacruz.com Web domain.

But now, the name will revert to the late salsa star’s estate, per a ruling from the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center.

The ruling came after Eventus Entertainment, a marketing, sports and entertainment company, took over the running of Cruz’s estate last year. Omer Pardillo-Cid, Cruz’s former manager and sole executor of the Celia Cruz Estate, is now VP of entertainment at Eventus, and has been working on a broad strategy to keep Cruz’s name alive. This past October, the company released what they called Cruz’s first live album, “Su musica por el mundo,” distributed by Sony.

It took Eventus approximately six months to write the complaint, which was logged in January. The WIPO returned its verdict April 2, and control of the domain reverted immediately to the Cruz estate. Now, visitors to celiacruz.com will find the late singer’s official site, which will still be housed at celiacruzonline.com, the site Cruz had used because her domain wasn’t available.

According to Eventus CEO Nelson Albareda, the celiacruz.com domain had been to drive traffic to other Web sites.

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