Bodog's Domain Names Confiscated

[NASHVEGAS]

Originally Posted by jetset

Nope - Paddy has some interesting things to say but speaking personally I tend to worry about reliability when these are overlaid with such abusive and markedly subjective personal comments.

Absolutely agree on all counts above JS. Random#rs makes some excellent points in regards to Paddy in the last paragraph of Post#134.

[NASHVEGAS]

It appears Niro has a sucessful track record from the article pursuant to the link Jetset provided.

[jetset]

BODOG TO APPEAL NEVADA PATENT RULING IN OCTOBER

But 1st Technologies have hired some big legal guns

There could be fireworks in Nevada on October 11 when Bodog, presumably in the form of its Morris Mohawk brand licensee, faces off against 1st Technologies in the first face-to-face clash of the patent dispute that has thus far cost Bodog its brands (see previous InfoPowa reports)

According to Bodog boss Calvin Ayre's blog, the two sides will argue the validity of the default judgment handed down to the gaming company by Nevada judiciary and a judge in the Superior Court of King's County in Seattle, Washington.

1st Technology claims the $48 million default judgment is fair and good because Bodog (which was not present to contest the claim) infringed its United States Patent No. 5,564,001 entitled "Method and System for Interactively Transmitting Multimedia Information Over a Network which Requires a Reduced Bandwidth" while operating in the United States.

Giving a hint at the defence strategy, Ayre writes that Bodog Entertainment SA as a Costa Rican company is an international entity that has neither a presence or assets in the United States. He adds that it is not part of the Bodog Group of Companies and has no assets, because domains are not assets and the domains it held were on behalf of other unspecified companies.

Domain names are a part of the world community based on ICANN's charter and mission statement, which brings into question whether or not they could or should be seized.

Bodog's main defence, though seems to rest on its contention that it was not properly served on the Nevada patent action, thus destroying the allegation that it was in default at the hearing.

Ayre writes: "Nobody involved with the company that was sued or anyone with BodogLife [a new brand recently launched as a consequence of the patent dispute] has any knowledge of anyone getting served and this is the basis of the appeal of the judgment on Oct 11th. You cannot have a valid default judgment without having valid service as far as we know."

Describing the court's decision as "ridiculous" Ayre goes on to opine that it will be overturned and the domains reinstated as Bodog's. However, the new BodogLife brand will continue to be the group's prominent brand going forward.

Patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grew to 165 485 last year from 96 727 in 1990. Patent-infringement lawsuits, meanwhile, doubled to 2 400 from 1988 to 2001, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

Bodog's lawyers will face a formidable adversary in court, it appears. 1st Technologies is represented by one of the most successful patent action law firms in the United States - the 26-lawyer Chicago firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller &. Niro, devoted exclusively to plaintiffs intellectual actions, often on a contingency basis where the company gets 45 percent of proceeds from a license, jury verdict or settlement.

The head of the firm, Raymond Niro has won dozens of patent-related jury verdicts worth more than $400 million, according to Law.com. Among his truimphs Niro won one of Colorado's biggest patent-infringement cases in 1997 when a Denver jury awarded inventor Ron Chasteen $57 million from snowmobile maker Polaris Industries and its engine supplier, Fuji Heavy Industries. An appeals court boosted the award to roughly $95 million.

Other major cases include the Research in Motion action, where the Canadian maker of BlackBerry hand-held e-mail devices, settled with NTP Inc. of Virginia on March 3 this year for $612.5 million. RIM refused to pay royalties to NTP for its wireless e-mail technology but lost at trial and faced a potential shutdown.

Another was the miniscule patent holder Freedom Wireless, which won a $148.1 million award from Boston Communications Group and four other companies last year in an infringement case over a patent for prepaid cellphone systems, whilst in a dispute between Denver-based Qwest with Texas company PhoneTel, more than a dozen technology and telecommunications companies settled on caller-ID technology developed by deceased Japanese inventor Kazuo Hashimoto. All settlements exceeded $65 million.

Law.com succinctly observes: "Raymond Niro sues first, settles fast, and collects millions..."

[NASHVEGAS]

http://www.coldeye.org/blog/index.php?itemid=106#more
There is nothing but silence from Alwyn Morris, one of Canada's most respected native leaders, over a claim by BC con man Calvin Ayre that he has entered into a criminal conspiracy with Morris' company, Morris Mohawk Gaming.

In probably the first time a criminal conspiracy has been announced in a press release, Ayre said that Morris Mohawk had entered into a licensing agreement that would see it operate all of Bodog's gaming operations in North America, which is essentially the US so far as Bodog operations go. All of Bodog's operations in the US are against the criminal law of that country and a number of similar operations and individuals have been, or are being, prosecuted there and jail terms have resulted.

Section 465 (3) of Canada's Criminal Code says,

(3) Every one who, while in Canada, conspires with any one to do anything referred to in subsection (1) in a place outside Canada that is an offence under the laws of that place shall be deemed to have conspired to do that thing in Canada.

This section of the criminal law would appear to be capable of bringing not only Alwyn Morris, but Calvin Ayre, before the Canadian courts on charges of conspiring in Canada to violate the United States Code. However, it must be remembered that the only link that Morris has to this crime is a claim by Ayre in a press release, and a quote supposedly from Morris that would indicate he actually is in the agreement. Until some concrete affirmation of his involvement is made by Morris himself through credible sources, no one should consider the Order of Canada holder as part of this conspiracy. However, concrete affirmation could take the form of Morris appearing as a party in any US court action seeking to reverse the recent judgments against Bodog in Nevada and Washington courts.


The Mohawk Gambit, as it is now called, appears to be the best Ayre can do as a strategy in dealing with the devastating legal actions brought on by 1st Technology LLC, a Nevada company that holds a patent on processes within the Bodog gaming software and on which Bodog has refused to acquire a license and pay royalties. As part of the legal actions, 1st Technology has gained control of Bodog's domain names, resulting in a very serious loss of search engine ranking for Bodog with typical gaming search queries. The transparent strategy appears to be to claim that an agreement existed between Bodog and Morris to operate the licenses, which would include the lost domains, that predated the court's judgment and hence Morris had a right to operate the domains that should not be lost by the claims against Bodog.

It's typical Calvin Ayre, nothing really different than the criminal approach he has been taking to business since his Bicer Medical days. Undoubtably, no agreement ever existed with Morris prior to the 1st Tech actions. Any claim to the contrary would have to involve perjury if brought to the US courts, as well as charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Ayre may soon be seeing the inside of a Canadian courtroom at any rate. Some years ago, he perjured himself in an affidavit filed in BC Supreme Court in support of his sister Anita Ayre aka Anita Eden in a child custody dispute. In what was the most preposterous of a string of lies advanced by Ayre/Eden, Calvin Ayre swore under oath that he had nothing to do with a 1987 marijuana smuggling scheme that resulted in a four year sentence for his father, Kenneth Ayre. A private information charging perjury against Calvin Ayre, and conspiracy to obstruct justice against both Calvin Ayre and Anita Ayre/Eden will be filed in October in provincial court in Vancouver.

Don't be surprised if his defense has something to do with Mohawks.

[Casinomeister]

Hi NASHVEGAS,

I'm not sure that I want this stuff here. The coldeye website is run by a guy who has been banned here twice for violating rule 1.6 and 1.11

1.6 - No "Libelous" Posts. Do not make posts that could be considered libelous, defamatory, or posting merely to cause harm to another's business. Opinions are expected, but do not attack others with accusations of criminal activity unless this has been proven in a court of law.

1.11 - Please do not exploit this board to promote your own personal agenda. If the moderators (and members) feel that you are spamming the board with links to your website, etc., your account may be suspended.

When you copy these ramblings and paste them here, you are giving this guy a platform that I really don't care to give. I don't mind you discussing these matters, but simply copying and pasting his posts undermine his banishment.

Thanks for your undersatnding.

[NASHVEGAS]

Originally Posted by Casinomeister

Hi NASHVEGAS,

I'm not sure that I want this stuff here. The coldeye website is run by a guy who has been banned here twice for violating rule 1.6 and 1.11

1.6 - No "Libelous" Posts. Do not make posts that could be considered libelous, defamatory, or posting merely to cause harm to another's business. Opinions are expected, but do not attack others with accusations of criminal activity unless this has been proven in a court of law.

1.11 - Please do not exploit this board to promote your own personal agenda. If the moderators (and members) feel that you are spamming the board with links to your website, etc., your account may be suspended.

When you copy these ramblings and paste them here, you are giving this guy a platform that I really don't care to give. I don't mind you discussing these matters, but simply copying and pasting his posts undermine his banishment.

Thanks for your undersatnding.

Understood.........Respectfully,NV

[jetset]

DEVALUED DOMAINS AT ONLINE GAMBLING GROUP

Bodog owner claims confiscated domains have lost value


The owner of the Bodog online gambling group fired another broadside at patent litigation opponent First Technologies this week on his blog Calvin Ayre Life.com, taunting 1st Tech's CEO Dr. Scott Lewis on an alleged decline in the Bodog domains he holds by court order.

The two companies are still locked in litigation over 1st Technologies claim that Bodog infringed patents on Internet technology, which led to Nevada and Washington judges awarding a $49 million default judgement against Bodog, and delivered the Bodog domains into the hands of 1st Technologies. Reacting fast, Bodog launched the new brand Bodog Life.com and continued its online gambling and entertainment facilities with minimal interruption.

Since then, Bodog founder Calvin Ayre has used his blog to repeatedly attack Scott Lewis and his company, describing it as a "patent troll." This has clearly irritated Lewis, who has asked Ayre to desist with the name calling. Judging by Ayre's latest posts that is not going to happen.

This week, Ayre claims that unnamed "domain evaluation experts" have advised him that the old Internet domains held by Lewis have declined in value, whilst the new domains have flourished.

"Although the value of Bodog's old domains has taken a huge hit since Patent Troll Scott Lewis and 1st Technologies launched a patent infringement case against [Bodog], the new Bodoglife.com domain is now worth over $1 million," Ayre writes. In contrast, he reveals that the domains held by Lewis have declined, quoting the following valuations:

Bodog.com domain value Jan. 17, 2007: $692,580
Bodog.com domain value as of Nov. 14, 2007: $264,930

"Well well well… if this ain't a kick in the pants then I don't know what is," Ayre crows: "After 2.5 months of having all of Bodog's old domains black holed by the Patent Trolls over at 1st Technologies, domain evaluation experts say Bodog's original domains have lost over 75% of their value, while the new Bodoglife domain is now worth over $1 million dollars and climbing."

The Bodog founder goes on to explain that several factors establish a domain's value, such as traffic (number of daily unique visitors), brandability (presence, relationship with customers, cultural relevance, emotional connection, easy to remember), search engine compatibility (listed in all major search engines, search engine friendly content), page rank (number of relevant websites that link to your site), domain extensions (.com), and linguistics (easy to pronounce) for starters.

"But one of the main determining factors—especially in the case of Bodog.com—is domain parking revenue," Ayre claims. "Why? It's simple: Revenue is a measurable factor and comparisons can be made for revenue to sale price of other domains."

"In our case we still maintain US and international trademarks on Bodog for the areas of entertainment (i.e. we are in many international domains such as Bodog.eu)," Ayre explains. "This means Bodog cannot be trademarked by anyone else. So this—combined with its having lost all of its search ranking, along with Bodoglife.com now being the top-ranked site for Bodog search—makes Bodog.com nearly valueless to anyone but us. Anyone who bought Bodog.com, as an example, would immediately be in court with us fighting a trademark case and thus making it difficult to sell for any high amount.

"Scott Lewis and the rest of the Patent Trolls over at 1st Tech really did not understand the Internet or branding when they shut those domains off…it was a pretty stupid conclusion to a fairly sophisticated legal mugging…they got so greedy at the last moment that their hormones started making decisions…and instead of quietly telling us they could shut them off and allow us to quietly send them a face-saving payment they went ahead and did it and then sent in that now famous extortion email that we ignored," the Bodog chief taunts, although that last sentence perhaps indicates a solution that might have been.

Ayre ends his current attack with a reminder that Bodog is not in this [1st Technologies] lawsuit, reiterating that the company is "...an assetless ex-supplier that shut down its operations in Sept. 2006 and was doing domain management for us that got sued."

Indicating that the legal battle has some time yet to run, he adds: "This is only a domain rights law issue to Bodog; it's not a patent case from our perspective. There is no winning outcome in this case left for the Patent Trolls over at 1st Tech. Even if they are finally able to sell the domains they stole from us, this will not cover their legal bills to date…and I predict their bills have only just begun with some of the fun I see coming their way."

It appears that 1st Technologies is maintaining the low profile approach to the issue that has characterised its claims to date - no further statements have been issued.

[jetset]

BODOG PATENT CASE GETS TECHNICAL

Online gambling group requests ruling on status of domains

The ongoing and acrimonious patent and domains dispute between 1st Technologies and Bodog Entertainment Group SA took a new direction last week with a novel motion filed by the Bodog legal team.

The motion, filed on November 13 in the same court which ordered the confiscation of Bodog domains in a $47 million default judgement that is still being contested, asks the court to answer a question which has not yet been answered in Washington law:

"Are Internet domain names considered "property" that can be subject to seizure to collect on a judgment?"

For Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A., the answer is a resounding "No," says a statement from the company, which is waiting for a decision, this week.

Specifically, Bodog Entertainment Group have asked the Washington court reconsider its prior ruling granting a writ of execution which permitted 1st Technology LLC to seize thousands of Internet domain names, including domain names that incorporated Bodog trademarks.

Through its lawyers, Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A. points out that there is no previously established case law in the state of Washington which specifically permits Internet domain names to be seized or finds that domain names are "property" that can be seized under Washington law.

Defense team lawyer James Nguyen, an entertainment, intellectual property and Internet law specialist at Foley & Lardner LLP, explained: "This is a new legal issue triggered by the emergence of Internet technology."

Because there are no current legal decisions in Washington about this important point, the defending legal team is asking the Washington judge to look to established law in the state of Virginia, which holds that domain names should not be subject to seizure.

The state of Virginia is an appropriate jurisdiction for legal reference, because the second largest domain name registrar in North America, Network Solutions, is located in Virginia. Virginia courts thus have considerable experience with Internet domain name legal issues.

Furthermore, Nguyen points out that "in a number of jurisdictions, trademarks are not considered assets that are subject to seizure."

Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A.'s legal team therefore argues that domain names which incorporate the Bodog and related trademarks cannot be transferred, because those domain names could not be used by a third party (such as anyone who might purchase the domain name through an Internet auction) without infringing on Bodog trademarks.

As Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A.'s motion argues that if a court does not have the power to permit seizure of trademarks, it likewise should not have the power to seize or transfer domain names which contain those trademarks.

"This is a groundbreaking case in the muddy waters of Internet law, and we are confident that we have many aspects in our favor to [get] some clarity on this issue and have our domains returned to us," said Bodog Founder Calvin Ayre.

The motion was filed on Nov. 13 in the case 1st Technology, LLC v. Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A., Superior Court for State of Washington, County of King, Case No. 07-2-25305-0 SEA, and is currently under consideration before the Honorable John Erlick.

[Slotster!]

What a fascinating thread... Just spent twenty minutes thoroughly engrossed in the to'ings and fro'ings!

Thank you Jetset specifically for the tempered, balanced summaries of what often verged on becoming heated, biased nonsense.

Ultimately, and regardless of any personal opinion of the man, C.A has built and maintained a hugely successful and largely trusted operation -- in an industry littered with less that reputable people and organisations.

A bold, brash, "fighting talk" response is surely expected from the owner of an organisation that has built it's brand on the slogan "play hard"!

There may be 'out of court settlements', there may be long drawn out procrastinated legal action; there'll inevitably be good and bad publicity on both sides. Ultimately - Bodog aren't going to be disappearing anywhere, anytime soon...

[lots0]

Originally Posted by jetset

This week, Ayre claims that unnamed "domain evaluation experts" have advised him that the old Internet domains held by Lewis have declined in value, whilst the new domains have flourished.

Calvin Ayre is full of it.

I do agree that the old bodog domain names are losing value everyday they are not up and running.

However, as I posted in the bodog SEO thread http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...ion-split.html that was split off of this thread, newbodog.com has been penalized in google for paid links and some other shady SEO stuff and the new bodoglife domain names do not appear in google for any money keywords at all. And if the domain name is penalized and not appearing for money keywords in google, it ain't worth spit.

I thought that Calvin Ayre was a smart guy, he should know that the domain market sets domain name prices, not some unknown, unnamed "experts". bodog.com is worth exactly what someone is will to pay for it and not a penny more.

I asked around and I don't know anyone in the domain name market that thinks that bodog.com or bodoglife.com are worth any more than $50 grand USD to anyone but the folks at Bodog (or those that want leverage to get money out of them).

What could anyone but bodog do with domain name bodog.com anyway? Start a new casino/sportsbook/poker room on the old bodog.com domain name, I'll lay odds that would go over big (sarcastic).... and if I was this Lewis guy, I'd do it, at least he might get his money that way.... lol