Lawsuit filed after expired domains sold on NameJet.
John Zuccarini has filed a complaint (pdf) against NameJet, eNom, VeriSign, and Network Solutions in U.S. District Court over the transfer and auctioning of a number of his domain names.
A number of Zuccarini’s domain names were transferred to a court-appointed receiver due to a judgment against Zuccarini in an anti-cybersquatting case. The receiver accidentally let some of the domain names expire, and the domain names were auctioned off on NameJet. (The domains were at Network Solutions, which sends all of its expired domains to NameJet.) A court denied a request for an emergency injunction against the domain names sold at NameJet.
The suit claims breach of contract, conversion, and civil conspiracy. Zuccarini is asking for the transfer of the domains to another party (the receiver) to be deemed illegal and void, payment of the approximately $80,000 the parties earned from auctioning the domains, and significant damages.
NootkaBear says
You go John!
jeff says
Not their fault john’s party did not renew
NootkaBear says
I wouldn’t really call them “John’s party”, I really think John would have preferred keeping the renewal up and keeping the domain names…
WQ says
He should have used the Cupcake Party.
Josh says
I think John is going after the wrong party. Why not sue the attorney?
NootkaBear says
Maybe the most logical money wise, was who he named in the suit.
Josh says
Im sure the attorney owns a car, property or has a wage to be garnished.
NootkaBear says
Josh, you are most probably right about that, and possibly a nice car and a nice wage. Who knows, he may be next. Will wait and see what Zuccarini does…
John Berryhill says
Venue Fail. He is in the District of Southern Florida alleging breach of contract, when the contract specifies that disputes are to be brought in Virginia.
NootkaBear says
What about forum inconvenience? Is there not a way around the venue issue?
NootkaBear says
What about FL Long Arm statute? Up until last year, Verisign was registered to do business in FL. And, because you can buy a domain name over the internet, does that not come into play?
John Berryhill says
No, and no. The entire point of venue clauses in contracts are to avoid those sorts of issues:
http://pub.bna.com/eclr/05civ2024.pdf
If your case is premised on alleging that a contract was violated, then violating the contract in order to enforce it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Dan Altman says
Venue under the registration agreements can be extremely difficult to argue around. Domainer should carefully consider that in deciding which registrar to use.
greendn says
The attorney had renewed the domains twice previously who he means he knew what he was doing.