A
Andrew Allemann
Guest
Valuable domain names are at stake.
A lawsuit related to one of the longest running and most expensive legal battles in the history of domain names has now ensnared some well-known domain name investors.
Their alleged fault: buying domain names from a court-appointed receiver.
The case is complicated, but I’ll do my best to summarize it here.
Going back many years, a guy named Jeff Baron and several of his companies fell apart in a bunch of litigation between Baron and his associates. During that litigation, the judge became so upset with Baron’s antics, and apparently owing as many as 45 lawyers money, that he imposed a receivership on all of Baron’s assets.
That receivership sold off a bunch of domain names, but the receivership itself was eventually deemed to be improper by the appeal court. Back at the district court level, the receivership was eventually wound up. In the meantime, Baron filed various lawsuits against the receiver and others. The lawsuit against the receiver ended in the receiver’s favor, on the basis that although the appeals court eventually dissolved the receivership, that didn’t mean the receiver’s actions during that time were improper.
Some well-known domainers, including Adam Strong, Nat Cohen, Merlin Kauffman and Andrew Rosener, either bought domains from the receiver or now own domains that were sold by the receiver.
A new company called Associated Recovery LLC has come along claiming that it was assigned rights to Baron’s domain names and that the people that bought these domains from the receiver need to give them back.
According to one defendant, Associated Recovery is merely a shell for Jeff Baron and he is essentially trying to take back the domains that the court ordered to be sold, even though he is required to abide by the court’s previous orders.
That means that the people who bought the domains now have to spend money to defend themselves in court. Some domain owners who weren’t aware of the lawsuit were surprised to recently have their domains transferred in a default judgment.
We’re talking about valuable domains here, too. Cohen is listed with 5950+ three-letter domains in the complaint. (The lawsuit repeats some of the domains listed under Telepathy.)
It appears Baron might be cycling through lots of attorneys again. Attorney Steven Rinehart was involved on Baron’s behalf at first, but no longer. (He has a habit of getting mixed up in weird cases like this.)
Here are some of the relevant court documents:
Lawsuit naming Strong, Cohen, etc.
A Chinese defendant’s response
© DomainNameWire.com 2016. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com.
Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
The post Lawsuit ensnares innocent domain name investors appeared first on Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News & Views.
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A lawsuit related to one of the longest running and most expensive legal battles in the history of domain names has now ensnared some well-known domain name investors.
Their alleged fault: buying domain names from a court-appointed receiver.
The case is complicated, but I’ll do my best to summarize it here.
Going back many years, a guy named Jeff Baron and several of his companies fell apart in a bunch of litigation between Baron and his associates. During that litigation, the judge became so upset with Baron’s antics, and apparently owing as many as 45 lawyers money, that he imposed a receivership on all of Baron’s assets.
That receivership sold off a bunch of domain names, but the receivership itself was eventually deemed to be improper by the appeal court. Back at the district court level, the receivership was eventually wound up. In the meantime, Baron filed various lawsuits against the receiver and others. The lawsuit against the receiver ended in the receiver’s favor, on the basis that although the appeals court eventually dissolved the receivership, that didn’t mean the receiver’s actions during that time were improper.
Some well-known domainers, including Adam Strong, Nat Cohen, Merlin Kauffman and Andrew Rosener, either bought domains from the receiver or now own domains that were sold by the receiver.
A new company called Associated Recovery LLC has come along claiming that it was assigned rights to Baron’s domain names and that the people that bought these domains from the receiver need to give them back.
According to one defendant, Associated Recovery is merely a shell for Jeff Baron and he is essentially trying to take back the domains that the court ordered to be sold, even though he is required to abide by the court’s previous orders.
That means that the people who bought the domains now have to spend money to defend themselves in court. Some domain owners who weren’t aware of the lawsuit were surprised to recently have their domains transferred in a default judgment.
We’re talking about valuable domains here, too. Cohen is listed with 5950+ three-letter domains in the complaint. (The lawsuit repeats some of the domains listed under Telepathy.)
It appears Baron might be cycling through lots of attorneys again. Attorney Steven Rinehart was involved on Baron’s behalf at first, but no longer. (He has a habit of getting mixed up in weird cases like this.)
Here are some of the relevant court documents:
Lawsuit naming Strong, Cohen, etc.
A Chinese defendant’s response
© DomainNameWire.com 2016. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com.
Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
The post Lawsuit ensnares innocent domain name investors appeared first on Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News & Views.
Related posts:
- Microsoft Files Cybersquatting Lawsuit Over Bing Domain Names
- The wild story about how the domain name CM.com was just registered
- Lawsuit filed after Materia.com UDRP, and it’s an interesting case
Continue reading...
