PokerHost.com: A Bunch of Idiot Thieves

A funny thing happened to me today. I got a call from my mother who said I got a big package in the mail from an attorney out in Chicago, which she opened (gotta love moms ;). It turned out to be a UDRP complaint from PokerHost.com.

Back in late June, while having a sympathy drink after getting busted out of one of the WSOP at McFaddens in the Rio, I heard my name being shouted out in a thick German accent.

"Dutch Boyd!!! You have my domain name!"

I turned around and saw this obviously drunk european decked to the nines with PokerHost.com logos. They were doing a lot of logo placement on players this year. I'd never played at the site, and I was pretty sure PokerHost.com was not one of my domain names. So I didn't know what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?", I said.

"You have PokerHost.net!", he said.

That made sense. Except that it's my name. I have a lot of domain names. So we talked for a few minutes... turns out his name was Magnus and I assume he was one of the principles of the online poker site. I told him I hadn't developed the name and he was kind of lucky that I owned it, because a lot of domainers out there hold onto domains like they were Manhattan condos. (A good example is a recent story I heard about a guy named Steve Thiele, who registered MiccosukeeTribeofIndians.com and is trying to squeeze the Florida Indian tribe for $500k! He allegedly turned down a hundred grand for the domain name.) I said I wasn't married to it and I'd certainly be willing to sell it for a fair price.

I had registered the name back in 2004 when some guys had me come out to Florida to host a TV pilot called Holdem or Foldem. I figured being a poker host would be kind of cool, like Phil Laak, or Phil Gordon or Mike Sexton... those guys I'm sure make a sick hourly rate for hosting those poker shows. Anyway, the show didn't get picked up and I figured I could use the domain for something else like a VIP Hosting service similar to what Antonio Esfandiari was doing... or even a hosting site for poker websites to locate like Kahnawakee. Whatever... I parked it and made sure it wouldn't expire. It's made it's registration fee every year so it's not really costing me anything to keep.

When I talked to Magnus, I realized that the domain name would probably be a lot more valuable to them then it would be to me. They've already spent a good chunk of money developing "Poker Host" as a brand for an online poker site... and because of the advertising regulations on ESPN and whatnot, they can't actually have "PokerHost.com" on TV... which is why you see PokerStars.net and FullTiltPoker.net being heavily advertised.

This was awesome for me. Online poker sites are such big businesses... they are one of the few dot-coms that actually have a clear revenue model. And here was a poker site who had developed a brand without actually even having any of the other extensions! They were the perfect end-user for the domain... much better than trying to sell it to Mike Sexton! :) I started wondering how much I could get for it, and seeing as it was such a bad series I would have settled for a grand or two. I sent a couple emails to their support trying to get back in touch with Magnus and to let them know I was looking forward to doing business with them.

But I never heard back from them. They never sent an offer for the domain name. Instead, they hired an IP lawyer in Chicago named Paul McGrady, which is one of the leading domain name attorneys in the nation. He filed a UDRP complaint which as I said came in the mail today. Lucky for me, I also went to law school and I didn't sleep through Intellectual Property. I am not afraid of baseless legal threats, and as I can do much of the legwork this is going to require on my own, it's going to cost me a LOT less to defend against this complaint then it will take for them to fight it out.

Basically, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy is an arbitration process setup by ICANN so that trademark owners can get domains from cybersquatters who intended to resell the domain name to the trademark owner at a substantial profit. When used properly, it allows companies to quickly and relatively cheaply recover names that rightfully belong to them. For example, if you had registered DinersClubCreditCard.com, and then called up Diner's Club and tried to sell it to them for a million, Diners Club wouldn't have to go through years of legislation to get their name back.. they'd just have to file a complaint and it would be all handled nice and neat in about two months.

Recently, however, the UDRP had been used by some companies to do what is known as "reverse hijacking". This occurs when a company with a weak trademark tries to take a domain that rightfully does not belong to them. A recent example was when Equifax.com tried to get EFX.com from the owner. Keep in mind that three-letter dot coms sell for a minimum $5k to domain resellers... so the domain they were trying to take was worth about $50k minimum. The court turned them down. A successful attempt that was pretty surprising to everyone watching was when Lufthansa Airlines somehow convinced an arbitration board to give them LH.com!!! That's a two-letter domain name! It was unbelievable. I don't feel too bad for the guy, though, since the rumor is he turned down mid to high six figure offers for the domain. Plus he was using the domain name to redirect to air travel related sites.

Anyway, I'm not very impressed at all with the way PokerHost.com is handling this. First, I think they must be a bunch of idiots. It's bad enough that they'd spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars building an online cardroom without even having the forsight to register the .net version of their name. Then to be paying $1500 just to file the complaint and the hundreds-per-hour attorney fees they are paying Mr. McGrady to handle the case without first seeing if I'd just sell the domain for a lot less than it's costing them to go this route. I'm sure I would have. Not anymore, though!

Second, I think PokerHost.com are a bunch of thieves. They are trying to take what is rightfully my property. This isn't a case of cybersquatting. I'm not even convinced that they even HAVE a trademark on the name... I certainly can't find one at the US Patent and Trademark office's website which allows you to search for existing trademarks to avoid infringement to begin with. This is a case of reverse domain name hijacking where they're hoping I simply won't respond to their complaint and they'll get the award and the domain name. I'm so tired of these stupid companies showing up late to the Internet party and then complaining that the punch is gone... and then demanding that you give them YOUR glass of punch! This domain in my opinion and the opinion of a couple of appraisals is worth at least a couple grand... so Poker Host is basically paying some hired-gun to try and reach into my pocket and steal my money.

Well fuck that! Magnus and the rest of the guys over there at Poker Host are trying to take what is rightfully mine. I was the one who bought it. I had a legitimate interest in the name. It's a generic term which is DESCRIPTIVE of the business I was planning to develop with it. It's arguably even descriptive of their OWN line of business (i.e. hosting a shady, slightly illegal online poker site) and they arguably couldn't even keep me from developing PokerHost.net into a competing online site if I chose to do that. Any trademark attorney will tell you that you can't trademark a god damn word that is descriptive of your business. You can't be in the business of selling cranberry juice, go out and trademark "cranberry", and sue Ocean Spray for having the word "cranberry" on their juice labels. And while you might be able to get a trademark for "cranberry.com", it doesn't mean you then get to take cranberry.net, cranberry.org, cranberry.info, cranberry.tv, cranberry.us, cranberry.biz, etc. etc.

Honestly this situation makes me so mad and I think it indicates what kind of outfit these guys are running at PokerHost.com. Doing a google search of "Poker Host ripoff" or "Poker Host fraud" reveals a long list of questionable business practices and outraged former users of the site. Every review I've seen of them is negative. And this demonstrates that they aren't above stealing from poker players. With all the shit that's been going on with Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, and all the sites which have gone down with player deposits (yes I know... pot and kettle), I would be very weary of trusting this site.

Now I have different development plans for PokerHost.net. Instead of developing it as I had planned, I'm going to have the domain start resolving to this post. And I'm going to start putting new posts up as this case is resolved. I'll put up my response to their complaint. And I'm going to link to every single forum post I can find where people have had complaints about this business. A not-for-profit criticism website has been deemed a legitimate use. Thanks to the first amendment, if you wanted to put up a site called "PokerHostSucks.com" all about how much this company sucks, they can't sue you for trademark infringement.

I have very little doubt that they will not succeed in stealing this name, and I hope if they are trying to hijack the other domain owners of the other extensions (like PokerHost.tv), that they too will fight to keep their rights. It wouldn't surprise me at all if these jokers are also trying to steal other "infringing" domain names like PokerMost.com, PokerHose.com, PokerCost.com, PokerHot.com, etc.

PokerHost.com... pffffff... what a bunch of idiot thieves.