Reglikedomain industry desk

Name EQN.com returned to rightful owner — Stolen domain

Name EQN.com returned to rightful owner — Stolen domain

Thief doesn’t show up to defend lawsuit.

Picture of thief at laptop computer

Verisign has transferred the domain name EQN.com to its previous owner following a judge ordered the transfer.

Blackshore Properties, Inc. of San Marino, California purchased EQN.com in a NameJet auction in 2011 for $4,950. A thief subsequently stole the domain name from the firm and transferred it to Chinese domain name registrar 22.cn in 2016.

Blackshore filed an in rem lawsuit in October last year in U.S. District Court in Virginia where .com registry Verisign is located. The thief (not surprisingly) didn’t show up to defend the domain, so the judge ordered Verisign to return the domain name.

The registrar for the domain switched from 22.cn to Enom around February 1, 2019. Enom doesn’t publish Whois records but the transfer likely indicates the domain has been returned to the legitimate owner.

David Weslow of Wiley Rein represented Blackshore Properties.

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