In a bizarre ruling in California federal court, NBA star Chris Bosh was awarded the domain name ChrisBosh.com and nearly 800 of these domain names from alleged cybersquatter, Luis Zavala of Hoopology.com. The ruling gives Bosh the authority to take over the domain names of hundreds of basketball stars, a pro wrestler, pro golfers, and some other random domains.
Bosh is offering the domains back to the celebrity or person that the domain represents. In a statement on the published list it states the domains will be given to the celebrity “free of charge as a courtesy to the celebrity named herein, provided that such person promptly requests the return of such domain name in writing”.
Clearly Zavala was speculating by the looks of this list . He registered many college and highschool basketball player domains, but what is very unclear is how the court made the determination that nearly 800 of these domains should be awarded to Bosh. We have yet to find the filing, but we will post that soon. Names that have no relation to a celebrity or other trademark were also awarded to Bosh including names like Hoopology.com, October24.com, Mixedmartianarts.com and 2 cities in Mexico, Walamo.com and Curimeo.
The fact that unrelated/unsquatted domains could be given up to a claimant is truly a scary ruling for domain name owners in DNN’s opinion.
UPDATE : Attornies for Bosh, Winston & Strawn, have a press release about the case up now where they proclaim Bosh a “cyber hero”.
author: Adam Strong
source DomainNameNews.com