Kentucky In No State To Seize Domain Name

Pocket Kings was an online gaming services operator which both and facilitated and licensed the use of its domain name fulltiltpoker.com. Safenames, an English company, was contractually responsible for pointing the fulltiltpoker.com domain name towards Pocket Kings' domain name servers. In 2008 the State of Kentucky, in the course of enforcing its criminal laws, sought penal forfeiture of the fulltiltpoker.com domain name on the basis that it had been used in the commission of multiple crimes within Kentucky. A seizure order was made and served on Safenames, requiring it to transfer the domain name immediately transferred to an account of Kentucky.

Pocket Kings sought an undertaking from Safenames that it would not do any act that interfered with the use and enjoyment of its domain name. After Safenames failed to give it, Pocket Kings sued both Safenames and Kentucky and applied for a declaration that the court would neither recognise nor enforce the orders in