A German site that was until this week purporting to sell the
domain name Sex.com has admitted that it never actually had the
rights to sell the name. The domain name is one of the most
valuable on the internet and its asking price was $85 million.
Domshop.de admitted this week that it had not been licensed by
the owner, Gary Kremen of San Francisco, to sell the name, contrary
to its earlier claims.
Kremen, who recently won the name in a US court decision, has
said he has no plans to sell the name. Domshop.de issued a
statement saying “we would have liked to sell sex.com but
unfortunately the real owner does not want to sell.”
Kremen registered the name in 1994 but lost it the following
year to an ex-convict, Stephen Cohen, after Cohen sent a forged
letter of transfer to Network Solutions, the domain registrar.
Cohen then ran a highly profitable porn portal until late last year
when a court awarded Kremen the return of the domain name having
found that the forged signature on the letter to Network Solutions
misspelled Kremen’s name.
