$500,000 for miccosukeetribeofindians.com?

An interesting battle is about to ensue between one Steve Thiele of Miami, Florida and the Miccosukee tribe of Indians of Florida.

Thiele owns the domain names miccosukeetribeofindians.com, miccosukeetribeofindiansofflorida.com and the domain name of tribe chairman Billy Cypress, www.billycypress.com.

According to a story printed in the Miami Herald, the tribe’s attorneys offered Thiele sums of $5,000, $20,000. $50,000, $100,000 which he refused, holding out for a sum of $500,000.

Once the final offer of $100,000 was refused the Miccosukee tribe decided to take the matter to court and let the legal authorities rule on this case.

Thiele, a bodyguard tied to the Miami River Cops, has been to prison having served 7 years for beating up a former banker.

“I was using it to start a Miccosukee fan site,” said Thiele, 45. “If they think they got a case, let’s have a jury decide. I’m not worried about that. I’ve been in court before.”

According to the Miami Herald and their legal contacts, Thiele stands a slim chance of retaining the domain name.

Howard Neu, a Broward lawyer specializing in Internet domain name cases, said he thinks Thiele’s chances of winning any sort of legal case are slim because of copyright laws.

Do we see another case of reverse hijacking in the making?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 7:46 am and is filed under Domain News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.