Belgium-based Lernout & Hauspie (L&H), a speech
recognition and translation software developer, has brought a
lawsuit in a US district court against former employee Marc Bautil
for allegedly stealing a domain name. L&H found out, to its
surprise, that the iTranslator.com web site was owned by Bautil
only when the company attempted to make improvements to the web
site.
L&H claims that Bautil registered the domain name in April
1998 after he started working at the company. It is claimed that,
on discovery of the problem, Bautil wrote to L&H saying, “I’d
be happy to sell you the domain name, make me an offer.”
Bautil launched his own, California-based, internet translation
service after he stopped working for L&H in 1999 and, it is
claimed, has redirected internet traffic from L&H’s iTranslator
site to this new company. L&H claims that this site:
“leads L&H customers and prospective
customers into believing that the services and links provided on
[Bautil’s] web site are sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated with,
L&H.”
L&H, which recently filed for bankruptcy, has faced other
troubles within the ranks when its co-founders and a former board
member were charged with fraud and stock manipulation.
Editor's note: Marc Bautil has asked
us to point out that this lawsuit has since been settled.
