As I reported back in May, NBA basketball player Chris Bosh won a judgment against a cybersquatter with the help of law firm Winston and Strawn. At the time, it was reported that Bosh was able to recover the domain name ChrisBosh.com, and he also won a financial judgment of $120,000 (including legal fees and damages). The report also indicated that the cybersquatter owned hundreds of other domain names of professional athletes.
This afternoon, Winston & Strawn announced that Bosh was awarded nearly 800 of these cybersquatted domain names, and Bosh now “offers their return for free to cybersquatting victims.” Athletes who want to claim the rights to their .com domain names may now do so at no cost to them. According to a note to athletes on the downloadable pdf containing the domain names, “If your name is on this list and you would like your name returned for free, contact Hadi  Teherany at Max Deal at (917) 338-7946 or Hadi@MaxDealTechnologies.com.”
Some of the domain names that were awarded include:
- DannyFortson.com
- NickCollison.com
- SteveNash.com
- RaefLafrentz.com
- JJRedick.com
- JamalCrawford.com
- TrevorAriza.com
- RodneyStuckey.com
- CarmeloAnthony.com
- KendrickPerkins.com
Congratulations to Winston & Strawn for securing the 800 domain names and to Chris Bosh for being willing to return them to the parties that should have the right to own them. Now if he would just forward ChrisBosh.com to his website, Chris-Bosh.com!
This is fantastic news! I knew about Bosh getting his domain and settlement, but congrats to both he and the law firm for doing the right thing.
This is good news, but ‘who’ has the rights to those names? Only the basketball players of those names? Or ‘anyone’ who also has that same name? Should be interesting to see who tries to make the claims, and ‘who’ shall get them.
Why would Chris Bosh be any more entitled to those names (besides his own) than the person he won them from?
@Todd — I agree with that completely.
Isn’t Chris Bosh now using those names to promote his MaxDealTechnologies.com business?
No better than the squatter, even if his “intentions” are good. We have to assume they are…
Go to the bottom of the PDF list of domains, and it gets even more preposterous:
december9.com
october24.com
january29.com
Those don’t look like trademark domains.
Another way to look at it:
Bank robber caught after robbing several banks. Judge lets guy who caught him keep the money and distribute it to bank account holders.
Nuts 🙂
Yeah that’s kind of messed up, it makes zero sense that he got other domains in this deal, especially the ones that aren’t even people’s names.
I agree that it’s very bizarre, but it gives the other athletes an opportunity to get “their” domain names without having to spend money on legal fees.
Additionally, it was smart of the guy to give them up (whether it was his suggestion or not) as he now doesn’t have to worry about future lawsuits or udrp actions.
Though the legal basis for the bulk transfer is/are not made clear in the release, e.g.: “Bosh’s law firm, Winston & Strawn, convinced the court to award Bosh each of the nearly 800 domains owned by Zavala and Hoopology.com.” ; it’s nonetheless reasonably evident that Bosh was granted them in fulfillment of at least a portion of the court’s $120k monetary judgment against Zavala.
This domain-transfer action was case specific; not some type of legal precedent applicable to anyone else.
Everyone can rest easy; unless they too have (other) names which can be taken to fulfill a monetary judgment.
Though it would be interesting to see what; if any; value the court placed on the transferred names.
@Steve: Interesting take.
@Elliot: Who should get StevenAsh.com or SteveNash.com — I hope their both not famous. 🙂
— Jorge.
I agree that it is bizarre that he was awarded other player names in the deal. Either way there is a serious disconnect with the Professional Athlete Industry and owning “their” domain properties.
Love the blog Elliot!
-Chris G
http://www.protegebranding.com/2009/11/29/owning-your-domain-property/