While Chicago is doing everything it can to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the bid team along with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is trying to take Chicago2016.com away from Stephen Frayne, a 29-year-old MBA student who is studying entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Frayne purchased the domain in 2004 – nearly two years before Chicago’s Olympic bid was launched. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the Chicago bid team who claims the domain is rightfully theirs. Chicago 2016, which currently uses Chicago2016.org as its official website, has filed a complaint with an international arbitration organization in order to win control of the .com domain.

“We certainly see Chicago2016.com as the logical default domain for our site, and we believe having someone else control it is misleading for people seeking information about Chicago’s bid,” said Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for Chicago 2016.

Frayne has responded by filing a lawsuit against Chicago 2016 and the USOC at the U.S. District Court in Chicago in an attempt to halt the arbitration proceedings and protect his claim on his coveted domain, claiming his only purpose for the domain is “public discussion”. His site clearly states that it is not the official web page for Chicago’s bid and includes links to the official site.

In recent years Frayne has purchased over 40 other domain names that combine a city name and year, including Tokyo2016.com – Tokyo is also bidding to host the 2016 Olympics.

[via Chicago Tribune]