Court Dismisses TRX.com Suit, Owner Seeks Attorney's Fees

In April 2022, Lu Ziming purchased the three-letter domain name trx.com on the domain market for $138,000.

In October 2022, a company called Fitness Anywhere LLC (claiming rights to TRX and currently in bankruptcy) filed a domain squatting claim under UDRP. Subsequently, a controversial panel of experts awarded the domain to the complainant.

Lu Ziming ignored the dispute notice and sued Fitness Anywhere in Arizona to halt the transfer.

Then, in February 2023, a company named JFXD TRX ACQ LLC (referencing Fitness Anywhere as its interested predecessor) filed an in rem lawsuit against trx.com in Virginia, where the .com registry is located.

After the judge dismissed the case, the domain owner requested payment of legal fees.

Today, the lawyer for the trx.com domain owner presented arguments to the judge on why legal fees should be awarded.

Key points from the trx.com domain owner's lawyer:

The UDRP that triggered the entire confusion was "fraudulent" because the complainant did not own the relevant intellectual property. Alain Villeneuve, the lawyer who submitted the UDRP (representing the plaintiff in this case), provided reasons why he did not realize that the complainant no longer owned the intellectual property. In the motion for fees, trx.com's lawyer argued that these reasons were untrue or misleading.

Another issue in this case is that shortly after both lawyers agreed to extend the time for the domain owner to file the fee motion, the plaintiff's lawyer filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeal has not been filed yet. It is worth noting that the amount in dispute for the lawsuit is not large—approximately $40,000.