Bodog's Domain Names Confiscated

[SlotsWizard]

I find this quite amusing. Mostly because I've never really been a fan of Bodog.

The £32,000 question is, who is this other party that thinks he owns Bodog.com? Is it some greasy-haired slob living out of his mom's basement, or some greasy-haired slob with a suit-and-tie living out of Washington DC?

I remember reading something a couple years ago where Microsoft forgot to renew their domain name and some guy generously did it for them so that they wouldn't experience any service interruption... and they merely reimbursed him the $30. You'd think they could have $hown a little more re$pect to someone who did that, but they were probably nervous that he was going to try what Bodog's hijacker is now doing.

Anyway... regardless of the fact that I am not a Bodog player... given everything that's been going on in the US, this is really bad timing and doesn't give off a good vibe.

And I can't imagine it's very good for business either...

[lnspin]

Updated Info

Story is 1st Technology LLC holds the patent on bodogs software , and for some reason , guess bodog did not give them there cut , 1st Technology LLC sued them in a US court , Kings Superior Court In Washington State for $48,937,456.00, since no one from bodog showed up in court for fear of stepping on US soil , the judge had to rule in favor of 1st Technology LLC . So i guess they made bodog forfit the name .

look at http://www.metrokc.gov/kcscc/daily%2...7judgments.txt

look down to case number 07-9-21969-8 , its on the first page , dated 8/1/2007 , with this case number you can also go to the court main site [ http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa...asesearchTerms ]and get more info on what they were charged with

[gerilege]

If you re-download the casino client from the new site, and re-install it, you will be able to log-in from the client as well. In case you still would like to play there...

[jetset]

Here's the official press release from Bodog:

Bodog Remains Fully Operational

Online gaming giant continues to offer customers full service
despite domain dispute

For Immediate Release

August 28, 2007

Bodog is encountering DNS issues related to several of its websites and is directing customers to an alternate site (www.newbodog.com) with little or no interruption to service.

“We are having difficulties related to our DNS registration but in little more than 12 hours, nearly all aspects of the website have been updated to reflect the environment our clients are accustomed to,” says Bodog founder Calvin Ayre. “We are working to resolve any of the minor remaining glitches on the alternate site, but other than that it is business as usual.”

According to Ayre, the problems result from a dispute over the ownership of the Bodog.com domain name.

“We are fighting this dispute and are confident that we will win,” says Ayre. “I sincerely apologize to any customers affected by our interruption and will continue to provide updates

[jetset]

The above sounds about right. It seems a company with a patent on gaming software has successfully sued Ayre in a Seattle court for patent infringement and has been awarded $48 million.

On August 21, a writ of execution was granted and that likely allowed the plaintiff to take over the rights to the domain name.

[lnspin]

Wrote a small indept article on whats going on there , along with links to the courts , to view the judgements . its at Bodog lawsuit

[jetset]

It looks as if the US legal situation and Ayre's/Bodog's vulnerability in regard to appearing in the USA may have played a hand to their disadvantage here.

On August 1st a Washington State judge in Kings County, Seattle issued a court order on the registrar for Bodog.com to have the site removed due to an unanticipated "patent infringement" claim.

It was part of a judgement in favour of a company called 1st Technology LLC against Bodog Entertainment Group, with the former winning an award of $48 937 456 (how do they work out the nickels and dimes on these massive claims LOL!)

Bodog may not even have been aware of the action, or decided that it was too risky to enter the States to defend it, or perhaps did not want to give the USA the power of jurisdiction over it. In any event, Bodog did not appear and suffered for it.

Known Bodog registered domains have been suspended, and as an immediate bandaid solution the company registered New Bodog - the company has trademarked the BOdog brand and has said it is going to fight the action with determination. The implications for brand, business, search engine positioning and other elements are clearly significant.

According to Internet searches, 1st Technology LLC is "....a leading technology licensing company with a patent portfolio of advanced Internet and multimedia innovations.

"1st Technology is headed by Internet pioneer Dr. Scott Lewis who led the development of the world's first single integrated circuit chip with on-board video and audio compression, advanced adaptive digital signal processing technology at Oxford University, and introduced multiple broadband Internet and multimedia technologies. 1st Technology has a long list of industry leaders as licensees.

"The violation relates to the Method for the production and transmission of enhanced multimedia information.

"An optimization method is disclosed that enhances the interactivity of multimedia information. The optimization method includes separating a multimedia information into primary and secondary layers and enhancing that information in the primary layers such that the perceived psychographic information quality is improved. This method has the advantage of providing compression and/or transmission algorithms to maximize enhancement of the multimedia information."

Bodog boss Calvin Ayre says: "We are fighting this dispute and are confident that we will win."

His group continues to offer customers full service despite the domain dispute, with Bodog staff working through the night to get the alternative site up and running.

"Nearly all aspects of the website have been updated to reflect the environment our clients are accustomed to," says Ayre. "We are working to resolve any of the minor remaining glitches on the alternate site, but other that it is business as usual."

The CalvinAyre.com blog is dead, but the Bodog Beat remains active, so not all brands have been nailed yet.

The litigation timing is significant and presumably intended - the first two to three weeks of football are the busiest of the year for online sportsbetting in the North American market.

[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.

[jetset]

'Meister - this makes (I think) now three threads on the Bodog patent topic running simultaneously - any chance of combining these to avoid confusion and duplication, please?

[Casinomeister]

'Meister - this makes (I think) now three threads on the Bodog patent topic running simultaneously - any chance of combining these to avoid confusion and duplication, please?

All three threads have been merged into this one