Empower.com Lawsuit Appears to be Settled

The Empower.com cybersquatting lawsuit was upsetting to me as a domain investor. Not only did the Defendants own Empower.com before the Plaintiff’s Empower Retirement brand existed, but one of the Defendants was a company called Empower Geographics (the other was the principal at that company). Put simply, it felt like the well funded retirement brand was bullying the smaller domain registrant who had put his domain name up for sale because they didn’t like the price to buy the asset.

James Iles published an article on Tuesday after Jamie Zoch informed him that Empower.com changed hands. The domain name transferred to CSC under Whois privacy, a corporate domain name management firm used by many large companies, including Empower Retirement. James speculated that the domain name was acquired by the retirement brand.

If you visit Empower.com now, you can see the Empower Retirement logo, confirming the company secured the domain name.

A new court filing on CourtListener.com seems to indicate the case was likely settled:

STIPULATION OF DISMISSAL
Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiffs GreatWest Life & Annuity Insurance Company, and Empower Retirement, LLC and Defendants
Empower Geographics, Inc., and Alex Machinis, by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby
stipulate that the above-captioned action is voluntarily dismissed with prejudice.

I reached out to the Defendant and to John Berryhill, an attorney who represented the Defendant, but I did not receive a comment from either. I would imagine (and hope) that Empower Retirement paid a substantial amount of money for the valuable Empower.com domain name in lieu of continuing the litigation.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

1 COMMENT

  1. On a different note i cannot imagine it was just me but sometime in November 2021 all these type of threads somehow ended up in a spam filter which has since been resolved…crazy – knew something was up…

    Anyway this is good news I am sure .
    bri

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

19
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...