Entrepreneur Tina Dam has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Court against Constantinos Roussos, head of the DotMusic Ltd. registry. As previously reported, DotMusic Ltd. won the auction to manage the new TLD, .MUSIC, in April 2019. Roussos’s victory took everyone by surprise: the domain is regarded as extremely promising, and eight companies, including heavyweights such as Amazon and Google, immediately claimed it. Compared to them, Cyprus-registered DotMusic Ltd. looked like an obvious outsider. However, all its rivals withdrew their applications. With almost one hundred percent probability, this meant that a closed auction was held, where Russos's company ultimately prevailed.
Tina Dam’s lawsuit has triggered a new wave of interest in the story and, perhaps, will help clarify it. For five years, Dam served as ICANN's IDN Program Director, then went into private business. As stated in her lawsuit, she founded the company MYTLD, which she owned in equal shares with Russos. The terms of their partnership implied, in particular, that MYTLD was due to own a portion of DotMusic Ltd. However, later Roussos unilaterally revised the agreement, although Dam did not sign the updated version.
The lawsuit also suggests a $5 million investment deal between one of Roussos’ companies and Tudor T & Credit Union Societe, Domain Name Wire reports. Perhaps this is how DotMusic Ltd. won the battle for .MUSIC. Lawyers representing Roussos claim their client intends to vigorously defend against the allegations set forth in the complaint and they are confident the case will be resolved in his favor.
