Domain names will be auctioned off at TRAFFIC in October if court approves.
Assuming court approval, Rick Latona has scored a coup by getting rights to auction off the remaining domain names owned by John Zuccarini to satisfy a court judgment and U.S. tax lien.
After losing a cybersquatting case to Office Depot, Zuccarini’s domain names were handed to a receiver. That receiver has had his share of challenges, including letting some of the domain names expire. But now the receiver is recommending the remaining domain names be auctioned off at TRAFFIC in Florida this October.
From the proposed order (pdf):
After researching the industry, consulting with Zuccarini, and interviewing multiple domain name auction houses, the Receiver developed an auction strategy to maximize the proceeds from the sale of the Domain Holdings. (Blacksburg Decl. 5- 9.) Specifically, the Receiver determined that the most prominent domain auction in the upcoming twenty-four months is the auction at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference & Expo, in Miami, Florida, on October 19, 2010, to be held in conjunction with Latona’s Brokerage & Auction House (hereinafter, the “Auctioneer”). (Id. 6.) T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is considered to be the domain industry’s premier conference, attracting attendees that control over 20 million domain names with 50 million daily unique visitors. (Id. 7.) Latona’s Brokerage & Auction House is considered to be one of the most prominent auction houses for valuable domain names, and is the exclusive domain name auction company for the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference & Expo. (Id. 8.) This auction will allow both live bidding and worldwide Internet-based bidding.
A list of the domain names is not currently available, but it will be interesting to see what’s on the list. Many of Zuccarini’s domain names were typos, and the court has shown concern before that auctioning off typos may be problematic. In 2007, the court wrote:
The Court is concerned, however, with DS Holdings’ ultimate plan to auction off the domain names at issue. As Zuccarini points out, many of the domain names at issue are deliberate misspellings and variations of legitimate domain names, both generic and proprietary. Such names may have legitimate purposes, as counsel argued at the hearing, but they may also be used to misdirect consumers, as apparently Zuccarini himself did.
However, many of the domain names that expired and were auctioned at NameJet were generic typos.
Hat tip: John Berryhill.
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