1. The company SteelSkin INC was founded in California in 1998 by DXXXX XXXXXX. The domain was bought and apparently registered with Network Solutions for 10 years, expiring on June 30th of 2009. It was registered under a personal account to DXXXX KXXXXX with a technical contact as CXXXX, a former employee of the company who hasn't been around since about 2003.
2.in 2006 I bought the assets of SteelSkin INC and created SteelSkin LLC in Louisville, KY. The asset purchase agreement specifically enumerates domain names, websites, trademarks, etc. Unfortunately, SteelSkin is not a trademarked name. NSI doesn't recognize the asset purchase agreement and says that they would have needed a court order to transfer the domain away from DXXXXX anyway, but now that it has expired, there's nothing that can be done about it at this point.
3. There were two 15 day extensions put on the domain, during which I tried to work with NSI employees to get the domain straightened out. They initially told me that they would be happy to change the ownership, (No mention of a court order, no request to see any documentation), but that they couldn't change ownership of an inactive registration, and for a mere $35, they would be happy to renew my domain for one year and then we could begin straightening out the problem of ownership. I know that $35 is about 4 times the market rate for domain registration, so I told them that I wanted to transfer the domain away from NSI. They wanted to 'negotiate' the price, but I don't want to do business with a company that tries to profit by price gouging their largely ignorant consumer base.
4. At this point I was told in a phone call with NSI that 'locks' had been placed on the account. I had created a 'mailto: [email protected]' e-mail account during the first 15 day grace period, but they never sent me anything. They then asked me to login to the network solutions account as DXXXXX KXXXXX, and submit a service request. I was dictated the exact wording of the service request, and told not to do anything until I was notified that the locks were removed and given the codes (?) required to transfer the domain out of network solutions. Again, no request to see the agreement between Mr. KXXXXX and I, no mention of a court order. I gave them two different e-mail addresses that I check religiously and waited for the notification that my account was free to leave NSI.
5. The 15 day extension ran out last Saturday, 8/8/09. I called NSI yesterday, 8/11/09, to find out why my page was offline again and how long it would take to get the locks removed. I was informed that they had sent e-mails to DXXXXX KXXXXX and CXXXXX but because there had been no response, the domain had gone 'back to the registry'. They didn't send anything to either e-mail address I had given them to correspond with me. I was told that it was entirely out of the hands of Network Solutions, and that an entirely separate company, NameJet, had accepted backorders on my domain and would be auctioning it off. The current bid was something like $75, so I should probably just place a bid and hope it was high enough.
6. I went through another registrar to find out who has my domain currently, and it still shows up as being held by Network Solutions pending renewal or deletion. The VP of NSI in charge of policy and ethics is on the board of NameJet, which appears to be basically a subsidiary of NSI. Because I am barely inside the 45 day window to get my domain back, I want this resolved as quickly as possible. I am NOT willing to buy it from NameJet at auction because I feel like the entire business relationship between NameJet and NSI exists to hijack domains and extort money out of people trying to do honest business.
I also have a listing in DMOZ which is not something easy to get at this time, and tons of investment into SEO and web development. The domain name
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