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VPP Poker Room News
| Update on the Bodog.com Domain Name Dispute - Monday, November 19, 2007 at 10:14
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On November 13th, Bodog filed a new motion in Washington State seeking a decision on a "case of first impression" which if successful will help protect all domain owners and owners of other intellectual property rights from patent trolls like 1st Technologies. Bodog is asking that Washington follow the lead of other states and not allow domains (and other intellectual property) to be treated as property eligible to be seized to satisfy a judgment. This is a an issue that has not before been considered in Washington state, however Virgina courts have held that domain names are not property subject to seizure to satisfy a court judgment. According to Calvin Ayre, in other jurisdictions, trademarks (a form of intellectual property that is arguably similar to domain names) are not subject to seizure of this type. Having the domain rules different from trademark rules creates an odd situation where the domains can be seized but not used because they would violate trademark law. This makes no sense as no one is better off by having valuable domains just lie dormant. In this case the judgment against Bodog is considered garbage by all reputable accounts, but in the case where there is a valid judgment to be enforced, doesn't it make sense to keep the domains in the hands of a company that can actually use them to earn money and thus have the money to actually pay off the judgment? This seizure of trademarked domains (such as bodog.com, bodogpoker.com, and more) serves no purpose other than to create a hostage situation and no one should find this an acceptable way to conduct business, much less have courts condone this type of blackmail.
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