[james01]

This is just found on GamingIntelligenceGroup.com:

Bodog Looses Domain Name, Ordered to Pay $49.0 million

Bodog.com is no more. Following what appeared to be technical difficulties yesterday with the company’s domain, customers are now being directed to NewBodog.com.

According to details emerging this morning, the loss of the company’s domain name is not the cause of the problem, but rather a result of more serious litigation brought against the company by 1st Technology LLC.

1st Technology LLC owns a patent on a process for taking bets online and claims that Bodog’s downloadable software infringes the company’s patent, which has been granted in the United States as well as elsewhere in the world.

Bodog failed to answer the allegations made against them in a suit filed in the State of Washington and as a result, a default judgement was issued against them on August 1st 2007 ordering the company to pay damages of $49.0 million.

As a part of the ruling, the registrar of Bodog’s domain names was ordered to remove all name servers associated with Bodog and Calvin Ayre, rendering the domains useless.

While this will no doubt severely impact Bodog, the implications for the online gaming industry as a whole are huge. If the 1st Technology patent really does protect a fundamental process of online gaming, many, many more operators could find themselves being forced to pay out big.

Gaming Intelligence Group will bring you further details of this case and the patent in question, as information becomes available.