Ninth Circuit Applies California law to Domain Name Ownership Dispute and Remands for Determination of Whether “Innocent Purchaser” Defense Applies — CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton
12 04 2010[Post by Venkat]
CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton, 9th Cir. (April 6, 2010).
Background: Mayberry registered rl.com through Network Solutions in 1995. At the time, mat.net was also registered to him. Mayberry provided dale@mat.net as the email address for the registrant and administrative contacts. The mat.net domain name ultimately expired and was later registered by Li Qiang. Qiang – who the court notes is probably judgment proof – receives an email (at dale@mat.net) from Network Solutions relating to rl.com. Qiang then transfers rl.com to himself and then sells rl.com to Barnali Kalita, an Indian citizen, who later sells rl.com to Laxton, the defendant below.
[Keeping your registration information current is common sense, but if there’s ever a case that illustrates the importance of it, this is definitely one of them!] [Eric’s addition: the Meyerkord v. Zipatoni case really highlighted this point IMO]
Once Mayberry realizes that he has lost control of rl.com he tracks down the current registrant, which happens to be Laxton, and requests that Laxton transfer the name back to Mayberry. Laxton – having just spent significant resources prevailing in a WIPO domain name proceeding brought by Ralph Lauren – understandably declines. Mayberry sues, and the trial court grants Mayberry summary judgment and orders the domain name transferred back to Mayberry. The trial court concludes, over Laxton’s objection, that California law applies. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit affirms that California law applies, but remands for a determination of whether theft or fraud resulted in the original loss of the domain name. If Laxton obtained the property from someone who obtained title by fraud, the “innocent purchaser” defense comes into play, and Laxton cannot be held liable for conversion.
The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/04/ninth_circuit_c.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
