BODOG REACTS TO DOMAIN LOSS

31 August 2007

Surprise litigation shuts down traditional Bodog brands....but New Bodog.com now in action


The past 24 hours have been a torrid time for the webbies and owner of the Bodog.com brand. The online gambling and entertainment group, which trademarked its brands some time ago, has been under siege following a Seattle court order that has hamstrung its brands....at least for now.

Bodog staff put in plenty of overnight overtime to set up New Bodog.com as a temporary solution for an issue that has serious implications for the company and its business.

The first intimation that something was wrong was when players around the planet found they could not access the usual Bodog links on Tuesday. Amid confusion and concern, the gambling group stepped up to explain that the problems were the result of a dispute over the ownership of the Bodog.com domain name, which the group was fighting. In the meantime, an alternative site had been set up for the use of customers.

As InfoPowa went to press it appeared that the US legal situation and Bodog's possible vulnerability in regard to appearing in the USA may have played a hand to the company's disadvantage.

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

It was part of an uncontested judgement in favour of a company called 1st Technology LLC against Bodog Entertainment Group, with the former apparently winning an award of $48 937 456.

It is not yet clear whether Bodog was aware of the action, or decided that it was too risky to enter the States or be represented in defending it. The group may not have wanted 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.com - the company has trademarked the Bodog brand and founder and CEO Calvin Ayre 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 [alleged Bodog] 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."

"Nearly all aspects of the [Bodog] 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 than that it is business as usual."

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

Legal detail can be found at: http://www.metrokc.gov/kcscc/daily%2...7judgments.txt in case number 07-9-21969-8 dated 8/1/2007, and at http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa...asesearchTerms

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa