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I was curious about the facts of the Sporty’s case. in the facts portion, the court states: “In JANUARY 1996, nine months after registering sportys.com, Omega formed another wholly-owned subsidiary called Sporty’s Farm and sold it the rights to sportys.com for $16,200. … In MARCH 1996, Sportsman’s discovered that Omega had registered sportys.com as a domain name. Thereafter, and before Sportsman’s could take any action, Sporty’s Farm brought this declaratory action seeking the right to continue its use of sportys.com.” (caps added for emphasis).
Later in the opinion the court seems to reference a different order of facts:
“… Omega registered sportys.com for the primary purpose of keeping Sportsman’s from using that domain name. Several months later, and AFTER THIS LAWSUIT WAS FILED, Omega created another company in an unrelated business that received the name Sporty’s Farm so that it could (1) use the sportys.com domain name in some commercial fashion…” (caps added for emphasis)In the earlier (facts) portion it sounds like the transfer of the domain name was before the lawsuit, but in the later part it sounds like the transfer was after the lawsuit.
I couldn’t find the district court opinion to better sort out the facts, and was curious if I am missing something obvious.
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The Jan. 1996 contract was a promise for later transfer. The actual ICANN transfer took place later, in May 1996. The reason for the delay was the time it took for issuance of Sporty’s Farm, LLC’s certificate of organization. (A nice opportunity to talk to students about bus orgs issues!) In the interim, the plaintiff filed suit. Here’s text from op below, with cite:
In January 1996, nine months after registering the domain name “sportys.com”, Omega, through Milton Hollander and Betty R. Hollander, formed Sporty’s Farm, LLC. Sporty’s Farm is a Christmas tree farm. By way of an agreement dated January 12, 1996, Omega agreed to transfer the domain name “sportys.com” to Sporty’s Farm in consideration for $ 16,200, upon the issuance of the certificate of organization. Sometime in May 1996, Omega transferred the domain name to Sporty’s Farm. In May 1996, the domain name became operational and Sporty’s Farm started to advertise its Christmas trees on the Internet.
In March 1996, Sportsman’s Market discovered that Omega had registered its mark, Sporty’s, as a domain name. Sportsman’s Market contacted Omega and demanded that Omega cease using the domain name. Omega refused. On April 29, 1996, Sporty’s Farm commenced the instant action.
Sporty’s Farm, LLC v. Sportsman’s Mkt., Inc., 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23290
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