Trademark Law

Here are some links to one of the most famous domain theft case to date, www.sex.com .

• Court rules on domain theft - In Kremen v. Cohen, a federal appellate court accepted the view that a domain name is "property" and that domain name registrars should be held liable for the conduct of third-parties when a third-party interferes with the property interests of a domain name registrant by stealing their domain name.
• Network Solutions Liable For Sex.com Theft - Comparing Internet domain names to property such as homes and cars, a federal appellate court ruled Friday that Web registry Network Solutions Inc. could be liable for damages after a convicted forger purloined ownership of www.sex.com from an e-commerce entrepreneur.
• Cost of Sex.com Theft: $65 Million - A federal judge brought the high stakes dispute over the website sex.com to a dramatic close by ordering the former operator of the domain name to pay $65 million in damages for fraudulently taking control of the site. In a ruling issued Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, Judge James Ware maintained a warrant for the arrest of Stephen Michael Cohen, the former owner of the porn site sex.com. Ware found Cohen guilty of fraud and forgery for wresting control of the coveted domain from its original owner back in 1995.
• Holding on Property Status of Domain Names is Bad News for NSI - NSI has fought the notion that domain names are property, much less convertible property, for years, and with good reason. The net is full of allegations that NSI wrongfully transferred domain names and then refused to do anything about its errors after learning of them. The Kremen court?s holding finally validates ? in California, at least ? the tort of conversion as a vehicle by which registrants can, in theory, seek compensation for loss of their domains by careless registrars. Of course, NSI no longer registers domain names without a contract. NSI?s standard contract, in fact, purports to absolve it from any liability or damages arising out of its registration services, except for the registration fees paid for the domain. (The contract also requires disputes to be resolved in Virginia according to Virginia law.) Thus, to collect more than nominal damages for conversion, a plaintiff would need to persuade a court to find NSI?s contract unconscionable. Judge Kozinski?s scathing observations about NSI?s conduct and the necessity of the common law to respond to such conduct may influence a court to make such a finding.
• Sex.com Hijacker Appeals to the Supreme Court - Cohen is fighting to overturn several lower court judgments, which found him guilty stealing the domain name Sex.com by fraudulent means and ordered him to pay $65 million in damages. 
• Supreme Court Ends Sex.com Battle - Writing the final chapter of the six-year legal battle over the Sex.com domain name, The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday rejected the appeal of Stephen Michael Cohen, the man found to have illegally hijacked the domain.