Righthaven Archives
Just one year ago, Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC was busy collecting settlement money from the unsuspecting recipients of its no-warning lawsuits.
On Friday, the tables were turned when a defendant who refused to settle won back some of the money he had paid attorneys to fight — and ultimately defeat — Righthaven in court. The first-ever sale of a Righthaven asset to cover the expenses of a prevailing defendant concluded Friday, with Righthaven's website domain name, righthaven.com, being sold for $3,300 in an online auction.
The court-appointed receiver auctioning the assets of Righthaven didn’t immediately identify the winning bidder, so it wasn't immediately known how the bidder would use the name.
There were a dozen bidders for the domain name, according to auctioneer SnapNames.com.
Righthaven, which filed 275 no-warning copyright infringement lawsuits over Las Vegas Review-Journal and Denver Post content starting in March 2010, has been ordered to turn its assets over to the receiver for auction so Righthaven creditors can get paid. The receiver seized the domain name, but earlier this week reported Righthaven had been uncooperative in turning over its copyrights and trademark for auction.
The receiver was put in place after Righthaven said it wouldn't or couldn't comply with a court order to pay $216,335 to several defendants that had defeated the company in court.
After collecting what are believed to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements, Righthaven stumbled this summer with adverse court decisions and has faced financial difficulties since then because of a combination of factors. Those include Righthaven's inability to prosecute pending lawsuits and collect more settlement money after judges ruled it lacked standing to sue, and the company's own hefty legal fees litigating its lawsuits as well as appeals now under way.
The domain name auction that concluded Friday will specifically benefit Righthaven defendant Wayne Hoehn, who is owed $63,720. No auctions have been scheduled to benefit the other defendants.
Hoehn, a Kentucky resident, posted a Las Vegas Review-Journal column on a sports betting website’s message board without authorization from the R-J.
After Righthaven obtained a copyright to the column for lawsuit purposes, it sued Hoehn for copyright infringement.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro in Las Vegas ruled last year that Righthaven lacked standing to sue Hoehn because the R-J maintained control of the column, despite Righthaven’s claims of ownership.
On top of that, Pro found Hoehn was protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law in his posting of the column.