Defends domain name in court — Scratch.org owner
Ravi Lahoti states he has owned the domain since 1998.
Earlier this year Scratch Foundation, a non-profit that started at MIT, filed an in rem lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name Scratch.org claiming that the domain is cybersquatting.
In the complaint, Scratch Foundation stated it reached out to the owner of the domain name in 2015 and offered under $5,000 for the name. As stated by the lawsuit, the owner asked for $450,000 and shortly thereafter started showing ads related to credit repair.
The owner of the domain name is now defending the domain name in court. Ravi Lahoti states (pdf) he registered the domain in 1998, which is well ahead of Scratch Foundation was created in 2007.
If the name Lahoti looks familiar, that might be since Ravi Lahoti is the brother of UDRPSearch.com owner David Lahoti. A third brother, Raj Lahoti, runs DMV.org.
Last year, UDRPSearch.com forwarded to information regarding a lawsuit filed against Ravi, making it clear that his brother David took sides with the plaintiff.
In a filing yesterday, Ravi Lahoti asked that the Scratch.org lawsuit be transferred to California.
Ravi updated the site at Scratch.org recently to includes news articles and videos with the word scratch in them. It also has a notice that the domain was registered in 1998 and includes the dictionary definition of scratch.
