Stephen Cohen's appeal in a bid to keep from paying Sex.com owner Gary Kremen a $65 million judgment for hijacking the domain name a few years ago was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 9.
"I'm vindicated," a jubilant Kremen told AVN Online.com midday June 10, thirty minutes, he said, before he himself learned of the high court refusal. The Supremes essentially agreed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who earlier refused Cohen's appeal on grounds that he had misused and abused the legal process throughout the case.
"His comment that he owns the trademark to the word Sex.com since 1979 when dot-coms didn't even come into existence was ridiculous," Kremen said, when asked what he thought were the main reasons why Cohen finally lost his appeal. "Two, given that the court made a finding that he actually forged a document from me doesn't bode well for him. And the fact that he didn't listen to the court and remains a wanted fugitive is a third."
Cohen, who has maintained he is still under Mexican house arrest, had been ordered to pay damages to Kremen for using what lower courts had ruled was a forged document to provoke Network Solutions to switch registration of Sex.com to him.
Now known as VeriSign, Network Solutions is still tangling with Kremen over that domain transfer. Kremen said the case is still before the 9th Circuit Court and he didn't know when they would hear the case again. "It could be tomorrow, it could be twenty years from now," he said.
Cohen took the domain when VeriSign – known then as Network Solutions, Inc. – failed to authenticate what turned out to be a forged letter Cohen submitted in 1995. Kremen sued Cohen and won a judgment against him for $40 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
A court swore out an arrest warrant for Cohen in March 2001, after he fled the U.S. to avoid paying the judgment.
For Kremen, the Supreme Court refusing Cohen's appeal makes room for him to bring Sex.com to "a new chapter. Now, I can do something with the name, because the title is finally clear and free for me," he said.
