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New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
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Website Authentication — WHOis Search Held Inadequate to Prove Ownership of Website

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From Nordica S.p.A. v. ICON Health & Fitness, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71385 (D.N.H. Aug. 11, 2009):

The alleged printouts from nordictrack.com, although also inadmissible at present, are considerably further along the road toward admission. Nordica submits an affidavit from Chloe A. Hecht, ... as well as a WHOIS report showing that nordictrack.com is registered to ICON, ... to lay a foundation for admitting these documents. Hecht's assertions that exhibits 9, 11, 12, and 14-18 are tangible representations of what appeared onscreen is sufficient to authenticate those exhibits. See Kenneth S. Broun, 2 McCormick on Evidence § 227 (6th ed. 2006); see also Nightlight Sys., Inc. v. Nitelites Franchise Sys., Inc., 2007 WL 4563875, at *6 (N.D. Ga. May 11, 2007) ("[A] proponent may authenticate a printout from a website by . . . a witness with personal knowledge of the webpage at issue . . . stating that the printout accurately reflects the content of the page.") This, however, does not make them admissible. For that, the ownership of nordictrack.com must be tied to ICON through admissible evidence.

In order to link nordictrack.com to ICON, Nordica offers evidence of a WHOIS report showing that the registrant for that web address is "ICON HEALTH & FITNESS, INC." ... WHOIS reports are not sufficient to establish ownership, as courts have recognized that such reports "merely provide contact information for the administrator or registrant of a domain name, and have no bearing on ownership." Dlorah, Inc. v. Nau Holdings, Inc., 2009 WL 1107533, at *3 (D.S.D. Apr. 23, 2009); see Atlas Copco AB v. Atlascopcoiran.com, 533 F. Supp. 2d 610, 613 n.1 (E.D. Va. 2008) (finding that the WHOIS report information about a website's registrant was "false and fictitious"). Thus, although ICON does not dispute what appears to be obvious, namely, that it is responsible for operating nordictrack.com, Nordica must take the necessary measures to establish this fact. That leaves the printouts from nordictrack.com, and to be admitted, Nordica must demonstrate that they either are not hearsay or fit into recognized a hearsay exception. See United States v. Heijnen, 2005 WL 2271874, at *2 (4th Cir. Sept. 19, 2005) (generally, documents downloaded from the internet are hearsay).

To summarize, while the evidence set forth clearly demonstrates that ICON's subsidiary, ICON IP, has breach the terms of the Agreement, Nordica has not established that ICON can be held liable for the acts of its subsidiary. With respect to ICON itself, Nordica has failed to produce sufficient admissible evidence to establish that ICON has breached the agreement through its own conduct.

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New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

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