Potential Victory in Domain Name Case

March 22, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Although the Kentucky Supreme Court did not return come back with the ruling that iMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association) had hoped for, Joe Brennan, iMEGA's chairman, feels confident that this is simply a step towards winning the case.

Brennan feels encouraged by the ruling that was handed down by the court, in which it was explained that the domain names themselves had no legal standing in the case, and that only the domain name owners could be represented by the company. The court invited iMEGA to refile the case as soon as they had a person or company with legal standing to represent.

Brennan felt that the court clearly favored the domain name holders. He stated: "In the written decision, the Court clearly indicates they agree with our arguments, and are inviting us to refile, so that the technicality of the standing issue can be resolved." He continued to explain, "The Court is telling us that all that is necessary is for one domain owner to come forward, and we likely win."

The decision taken by the Supreme Court allows for the refilling of the case to be done through the Court of Appeals, rather than beginning at the lowest court, since the process has already taken place. It seems, however, that once this is done, the case may immediately be handed back to the Supreme Court, where it has already been considered. It appears that the court may even hand down their decision without either party being represented further, as long as the issue of legal standing is addressed appropriately.

iMEGA has 20 days within which they will need to convince one of the domain name owners to step forward and therefore correct the issue of legal standing, and also to file their motion again. The company has plans to file the motion as quickly as possible.

Brennan explained, "We can make a motion at the Court of Appeals to move the case back to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court indicated that they'd hear it."

The online gambling industry is feeling quite confident that this setback was a minor one, and that the court will rule in their favor as soon as the issue of legal standing has been rectified.

Although there have been some concerns regarding which way the courts may decide in the case between the state of Kentucky and the 141 online gambling domain names, Brennan noted that "All along, it seemed the Court wanted to go our way, and this decision today indicates that is still the case."