Li Na is now one of the nation's most recognized athletes. Yang Shizhong / China Daily

When Chinese tennis player Li Na recently shot to worldwide fame as the French Open champion, her popularity spilled over to another hotly contested field - the Internet.

The domain name lina.cn is set to be auctioned next month at a reported starting price of 100,000 yuan ($15,458).

The domain name owner is not Li herself, but Liu Tailong, who claims to be a big fan.

Yet even Liu is not the person who registered the name. He bought it for more than 2,000 yuan from another owner in late May.

Liu said he is confident his investment will pay off, Beijing Daily reports.

"She is rising in her career, so her influence is expanding," he said.

"If not linked with Li Na, the domain name is just ordinary - no one would care about it, not to mention value it," National Business Daily quoted Liu saying.

Liu said he wants to sell the domain name to an organization connected with Li for a website about tennis.

One of the five athletes on the 2011 Forbes Chinese Celebrity list, Li ranks just after NBA all-star center Yao Ming in name recognition.

Domain names are considered actual - not intellectual - property under the current Chinese legal system, Beijing Daily quoted Dong Shilian, an attorney at Zhongyin Lawyer firm, saying.

But if a website is built for the lina.cn domain name with commercial operations leading consumers to connect it with Li Na, the tennis talent has the right to stop the operation, Ma Qiang, a partner of the Unitalen Law Office, told China Daily.

Domain names are not traditionally considered intellectual property, Ma said. But through continuing efforts by their owners, the domains can come to be identified with specific people or businesses just like trademarks, he said.

Sports stars and their organizations should pay close attention to protecting their intellectual property rights, China Youth Daily quoted He Wenyi, executive director of Research Institute for Sport Science of Peking University, saying.

"The future value of some athletes is assured," He said, adding that protection work should be done early.

"It could be too late if they fail to protect their intellectual property until after they have risen to fame," he noted.

Overseas professional athletes usually have agents or even an entire professional team to develop and protect their commercial value, he said, a model that Chinese athletes and their organizations can learn from.

The China Internet Information Center in charge of registration procedures for the .cn domain is a technology organization rather than a market regulator, according to its official website.

The principle for domain registration is first come, first served. Different from trademarks or patents, domain name applications do not have examination procedures or even need to make an actual website.

The trade in domain names has spurred speculation from individuals and organizations that acquire or create names they believe have commercial value.

The business includes intermediary service providers such as auction companies and domain name websites.

The process sometimes results in buyers who then build websites.

It is hard to collect evidence to prove that registration of domain names by others is an infringement of commercial rights or violates the rights to a name, Dong said, "so the best way is to register the domain name first".

China Daily

(China Daily 06/22/2011 page17)