Good news for anyone who had domain names seized by Verisign as part of an ongoing case who are not related to the defendant in that case.

The court appointed receiver Bob Olea sent me an email yesterday to the effect that domain that were not owned by the defendant of the case will be returned to their owners.

We wrote about around 5,000 domain names that we seized by Verisign related to a dispute under a sealed court order back on October 9th.

Since then TechDirt.com wrote a story about the case, which turned into a discussion on Reddit.com, where not surprisingly many non-domain investors hatred and/or jealousy of domain investors came out once again, including a blistering attack on yours truly.

However we are glad to report that this issue has been settled,  as far as an innocent domain holders that got caught up in the seizure order, will get their domain names back.

Here is the statement we received from Mr. Olea:

“”Any and all domain names that were seized that are not owned by the defendant in this case will be returned.

I will not be satisfied until EVERY identified name conflict is resolved!

As soon as I learn that a seized name isn’t owned by the defendant, I promptly contact the owner, verify their ownership, and transfer the name as the owners desire.

If you have any information about any seized names that were not owned by the defendant please forward that to me as you’re able.

Or ask the owners to contact me directly.

My contact information is very openly listed in the whois records.

I will promptly contact the owners and continue to do what I’m legally allowed to do to help resolve any outstanding issues.

Please let your readers know that they can contact me via the whois information, and I will do my best to help them.

I’m their advocate on this. I haven’t stolen, and don’t own, any of these names. I’m the temporary custodian, at the court’s direction, and I truly want to help anybody that has a valid claim…

Best,

Bob Olea (pronounced Oh-LAY-uh!!)”””

If you did have a domain name taken away stemming out of this court order and you’re not related to the defendant, then please let Bob know ASAP.

As all the seized domain names are at Uniregistry , if you have an account their they can just be pushed over.

In the meantime, I will be taking back my 3 domain names now that its agreed that everyone not involved in the suit will get their domains back.

Glad it worked out.

Much thanks go out to many members and advisers  of the ICA who spent a lot of time on this including Phil Corwin, Nat Cohen Stevan Lieberman.  A special thanks goes out to whoisology.com who ran countless reports trying to figure it all.  I furnished Bob with the final information we received and for Bob resolving this issue in a pretty quick manner.