Comments on: Thought Convergence Sues Westerdal

By: Domain Name Wire » News » Jury Trial Date Set in Thought Convergence v. Jay Westerdal - The Domain Industry's News Source

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:07:02 +0000

[...] Convergence (TCI) filed the lawsuit against Westerdal on May 1 over TCI’s purchase of Westerdal’s company Name [...]

By: Domain Name Wire » News » Jay Westerdal Launches Counterclaims Against Thought Convergence - The Domain Industry's News Source

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:13:32 +0000

[...] founder Jay Westerdal has filed a counterclaim (pdf) against Thought Convergence, Inc. (TCI) in a legal battle over TCI’s acquisition of his [...]

By: Domain Name Wire » News » Thought Convergence Amends Lawsuit Against Westerdal - The Domain Industry's News Source

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:07:21 +0000

[...] Convergence (TCI) has amended its complaint against Jay Westerdal and other parties related to TCI’s acquisition of Name Intelligence, [...]

By: Enrico Schaefer

Enrico Schaefer — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:13:54 +0000

Andrew: These cases are always toughest on the issue of damages. Even if a technical breach, the most likely thing they can accomplish is slow jay down from continuing to pursue those opportunities.

“Domain tools serves no additional content other than ads with the Whois.”

Actually, we use DT more than any other single site for background information on domains and whois. For typos, which includes registrant info, there is nothing better. Often, their archival info on web sites is better than archive.com. Their registrant report, while controversial, is a key tool combating cybersquatting, which is in everyone’s interest. The reports are pricey, but the only way to discover if a cybersquatter has 1 (white hat on grey area domain)or 50 variations (black hat who is hurting himself, the trademark holder and the industry) of your domain name. The single most important factor in determining whether a registrant is legitimate or a black hat is whether their portfolio is chalked full of typos of famous trademarks.

The non-compete in California will stand up without any issues since it involved the sale of a business. http://tinyurl.com/owvdqq Is working on a tld project competing with the business of DT? Probably not.

By: Andrew Allemann

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:55:41 +0000

Enrico, I am kind of surprised by some of the warranties Jay made too. I would think the biggest thing they have him on is pursuing other business ventures while still working at TC.

By: Enrico Schaefer

Enrico Schaefer — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:11:12 +0000

There is little chance this lawsuit is going very far and really about leverage. TC has an obligation to do due diligence before it purchases and much of what is alleged could have been uncovered pre-purchase or would otherwise be seen as pure puffery. Jay’s side is that the made some warranties which you would never want to agree to (hopefully, someone was negotiating on his behalf) which could cause some problems. But both end up with lots of public egg on their faces if this plays out in court. I predict settlement within 6 months (which is a very short period of time in lawyer years).

By: Andrew Allemann

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:23:35 +0000

@ WannaDevelop – I don’t think anything negative is happening to DomainTools. More of a dispute about what people did and said in regards to the transaction.