Firm to sue employee for domain name theft
OUT-LAW News, 09/10/2004
Belgium-based Lernout & Hauspie (L&H), a speech
recognition and translation software developer, has brought a
lawsuit in a US district court against former employee Marc Bautil
for allegedly stealing a domain name.
L&H found out, to its surprise, that the iTranslator.com
web site was owned by Bautil only when the company attempted to
make improvements to the web site.
L&H claims that Bautil registered the domain name in April 1998
after he started working at the company. It is claimed that, on
discovery of the problem, Bautil wrote to L&H saying, "I'd be
happy to sell you the domain name, make me an offer."
Bautil launched his own, California-based, internet translation
service after he stopped working for L&H in 1999 and, it is
claimed, has redirected internet traffic from L&H's iTranslator
site to this new company. L&H claims that this site "leads
L&H customers and prospective customers into believing that the
services and links provided on [Butil's] web site are sponsored by,
or otherwise affiliated with, L&H."
L&H, which recently filed for bankruptcy, has faced other
troubles within the ranks when its co-founders and a former board
member were charged with fraud and stock manipulation.
