VeriSign Subsidiary Sued Over Unauthorised Domain Name Transfer

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

02 October 2003

Software storage specialist, Optima Technology has filed a lawsuit against domain name registrar, Network Solutions over the latter's unauthorised transfer of its domain, optimatech.com, to a former employee of the firm.

This follows a federal appeals court ruling earlier this year which afforded the original owner of the Sex.com domain the right to sue Network Solutions over an unauthorised transfer. In a statement, Optima's president, Barry Eisler explained that:

"We are taking this action now, after notifying Network Solutions on several occasions that its actions caused our company a great deal of damage and lost revenue." He continued:

"This is no different than parking your car with the valet, giving your key to the valet attendant and coming out after a wonderful dinner, only to find your car was stolen as the valet gave your keys to a crook without checking to see if you authorised the theft."

According to reports, former employee, Michael DeCorte took possession of the California-based firm's website after sending an unauthorised letter to the domain name registrar, which is now owned by VeriSign. Optima is now seeking more than $3 million in damages from Network Solutions.

"We don't know exactly when [DeCorte] gained control of our domain name and when he began diverting our sales traffic," the firm's spokesman, Jack Geering explained this week. He went on to add that:

"When we confronted Network Solutions, they refused to give us the information. They said they had a letter from our company authorising the transfer and had also had follow-up phone calls with us."

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