Comments on: Verizon Wins $33 Million Judgement Against Registrar OnlineNic

By: Verizon May Be Unable To Collect $33 Million Judgment Experts Say | Domain Name News

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:28:20 +0000

[...] our previous post about the news that Verizon had won a default judgment against domain registrar OnlineNic, we pointed out an important fact in the case. The registrar OnlineNic is a owned by a Chinese [...]

By: Domain Investment Updates » Blog Archive » Bodybuilder Found Guilty of “Cyber-Piracy” and Trademark Dilution in American Indian Tribe Domain Name Case

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:49:39 +0000

[...] when Thiele did not respond. Thiele may wish to count his blessings in this case, considering Verizon was just recently awarded $50,000 each for the OnlineNic domain name squatting violations th… (c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com DomainFest Global: January 28th to 30th in Hollywood California. [...]

By: wannadevelop.com

wannadevelop.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 10:24:38 +0000

Next christmas, OnlineNIC will be just a memory… The company isn’t going to be able to take this little $33m hit or put up a fight either I suspect.

Too bad.. They had a pretty good 10+ year run.

Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com

By: Derek Newman

Derek Newman — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:39:03 +0000

Many defendants have two misunderstandings about the law. The first is that a limited liability entity (such as a corporation or LLC) always protects against personal liability. The second misunderstanding is that judgment creditors cannot foreclose on domain names and other assets.

Any person who is involved in the registration, use, or trafficking of a domain name at issue in a cybersquatting case is potentially on the hook. Accordingly, the OnlineNic principals are in the line of fire, and Verizon will likely pursue them next. Additionally, any valuable names registered to OnlineNic, its principals, or related parties will be at issue in a post-judgment seizure proceeding.

Business people need to defend these cases. OnlineNic might have had a valid defense, and may have had to pay lawyers but nothing to Verizon. In any event, a competent domain name lawyer could have negotiated a deal with Verizon that would have shielded personal assets, saved the company, and prevented against asset seizures. Now, the OnlineNic principals will spend the next several years running from Verizon’s collection machine, and in the end will pay much more than lawyers and a settlement would have cost.

-Derek Newman, derek@newmanlaw.com

By: sergei

sergei — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:18:29 +0000

I would imagine that Verizon, if they wished to, could quite easily enforce
this Judgment against OnlineNic in the USA ,as since OnlineNIC have a presence
in USA any Court will allow them to do so. Also I would think Verizon could get their hands on all the domains owned by Online NIC as well up to value
of $33M.

By: Domain Names Articles

Domain Names Articles — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:30:04 +0000

so, OnlineNIC will continue their work operation?

By: David

David — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:41:05 +0000

I can’t believe that.
OnlineNic seems to be a top domain registrar, which should not have done this. He deserves it if it’s true.
By the way, $50,000 is much too expensive for a domain with the phrase “verizon”.

By: RegFeeNames.com

RegFeeNames.com — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:01:18 +0000

Why Why Why – Do people still cybersquatt on these trademarks.

With OnlineNic not going to court shows they know they were wrong and werent going to win the case.

I think they shall be going out of business if they pay $33mil – I dont see many people recovering from this next year.

Regards,

Robbie

By: Judge Awards Verizon $33.5M in Cybersquatting case

Judge Awards Verizon $33.5M in Cybersquatting case — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 03:05:28 +0000

[...] $1K and $100K per domain. Very little is known about the actual case, and nearly all of the blog posts and press coverage simply restate the press [...]