Poker publisher wins domain case
Two Plus Two forum awarded US$59,000 following dispute with poker player Dutch Boyd, who plans to appeal the judgement.
The publishing company behind poker forum Two Plus Two has won its “domain squatting” case against poker player Russ ‘Dutch’ Boyd over the twoplustwopoker.com domain.
The resolution of the case, first brought in 2009, sees Two Plus Two Publishing LLC awarded US$25,000 in damages and $34,000 in court costs.
Boyd had registered the domain in 2004 on behalf of the Jacknames.com company, but his ownership of the offending domain was not discovered by Two Plus Two’s lawyers until five years later.
Upon bringing the case against Boyd, Two Plus Two Publishing owner Mason Malmuth said in a statement: “We never enter into litigation lightly, and it is never our attempt to “bully” anyone. However, we take protection of our intellectual property very seriously.”
This weekend Malmuth said of the verdict “While we don’t enjoy litigation, we felt that we did what was necessary in this case to protect our intellectual property rights. We are pleased with the Court’s order and the resolution of this case.”
Boyd, a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with more than US$2m in lifetime earnings, said on his Twitter account that he plans to appeal the judgement and that he is working on a blog post on the matter.
He added that “The 2+2 lawsuit was filed in December 2009, which was 3 [months] after Mason got the domain for free.”