Domain name is part of Ondova portfolio tied up in courts.
A UDRP panel has awarded anti-spam group The Spamhaus Project the domain name Spamhaus.com, but the group won’t be able to use the domain any time soon.
The domain name is registered to Ondova Limited Company and is part of a domain name portfolio that has been locked up in bankruptcy court for years.
When the UDRP was filed, lawyers acting for United States Bankruptcy Trustee of Ondova Limited Company sent a nasty letter stating it would seek damages if the domain was transferred.
You might be asking yourself, “Wait, a company can’t get a cybersquatted domain name away from a bankrupt company?”
I asked myself the same thing a couple years ago. I was amazed when a federal judge agreed that companies like Apple and Public Storage should return typos they won through UDRP to the trustee. The judge in that case demanded that Australian registrar Fabulous comply with the order within two days, and that ICANN (which had no control over the matter) also respond.
In the instant case, once Spamhaus received the letter from the bankruptcy trustee, it asked WIPO to either stay the proceedings or render a decision but not direct the registrar to take action until the court matter was resolved.
Panelist Sir Ian Barker decided to make a determination and let the courts decide what to do with it. Part of his rationalization is that the domain is owned by an individual, not Ondova. I question this conclusion, given that a registrant organization is clearly listed on the whois.
Spamhaus won the decision, but it’s probably paying lawyers now to handle the pending onslaught from Ondova’s lawyers.
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