Originally Posted by arg

Lots of fan sites out there use celeb names, but that doesn't address the legal issue of whether they could win a full-on legal attack. Based on past cases, I'd say the celeb would win it if they fight it properly.

Under a UDRP dispute, they'll consider the celeb's name a common-law trademark. For bad faith, consider the opposite: can your friend show a reason she registered the domain not related to the celebrity's name? Lack of profit so far doesn't disprove bad faith intent. What was her intent?

If your friend is in the US, then under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act lawsuit (entirely different from ICANN's international UDRP disputes - this would be in US courts), not only would she lose the name, but she'd face possible civil liability. Some excerpts that might apply (it's a long, complicated law):

(1)(A) A person shall be liable in a civil action by the owner of a mark, including a personal name which is protected as a mark under this section, if, without regard to the goods or services of the parties, that person

(ii) registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that--

(II) in the case of a famous mark that is famous at the time of registration of the domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to or dilutive of that mark;

(B)(i) In determining whether a person has a bad faith intent described under subparagraph (a), a court may consider factors such as, but not limited to

(II) the extent to which the domain name consists of the legal name of the person or a name that is otherwise commonly used to identify that person;

There are other laws they could use too, old-school pre-internet laws, like rights of publicity.