Lawsuit and Gets Flicker.com Domain Name — Yahoo Settles

Yahoo now has Flicker.com for Flickr.com web site.

As Michael Berkens pointed out today, Yahoo now owns the domain name Flicker.com.

But this wasn’t your typical domain name sale. It was actually the culmination of year long anti-cybersquatting lawsuit brought against the Flicker.com owner AshantiPLC, which is owned in part by domain investor Sahar Sarid.

Yahoo’s lawsuit against the Ashanti was filed in July 2009. Yahoo alleged that the defendants purchased the domain name for $55,000 on eBay in July 2006. The suit chronicles what the defendants did with the name following they bought it, counting showing traffic stats and citing numerous rejected offers. (They even turned down a $700,000 offer.) It also states that the defendants placed ads to camera firms on the domain name. Yahoo alleged that the defendants responded to twitter inquiries regarding Flicker.com being down.

You can read Yahoo’s original lawsuit here, and the defendant’s response here.

The parties entered mediation and settled the case, with Yahoo dismissing it the prior week. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.