print versionDear Mr. Opzoomer,
I would like to bring to your attention the issue of the web site domains Mama.ru and Doktor.ru outlined below. Since June, 2000 I have been employed as a Director at ZAO DOKTOR.RU, a Rambler Holding company. On December, 2007 I was notified of my employment termination, effective January, 2008. As a director of the company, I have been responsible for managing web site properties “MAMA.RU” and “DOKTOR.RU”.
Prior to my employment by ZAO DOKTOR.RU, I owned these web site properties as well as web site domain names. I transferred ownership of domain names “MAMA.RU” and “DOKTOR.RU” to Rambler. As I will no longer be employed by Rambler, I am now seeking transfer of domain ownership of these sites back to me. So far Rambler has not responded my requests and hence I’m seeking your help and guidance.
On June 1998 I became the owner of two web site domains, “mama.ru” and “doktor.ru”, registered for me by Redcom, a services company that provided technical support for these web sites. In May, 2000 I was approached by representatives of Russian Funds and Orion Capital Advisors, two investment firms that provided first round of funding for Rambler, with a proposal to invest into mutual development of both sites.
As part of the agreement, I was offered employment as well as assured that I will get a share in the about-to-be-opened joint venture that will deal with my websites (offshore company, that was opened eventually without my participation in it), in exchange of transfer of domain ownership rights to Rambler. Note that only ownership of domains “MAMA.RU” and “DOKTOR.RU”, and not the content of these domains, was transferred to Rambler. In addition, the investment firms arranged for funding to be provided by an Internet incubator company NetValue.
Further owners of Rambler disregarded the issue of domain transfer, which I addressed numerous times; nevertheless, they retained me as a director of ZAO DOKTOR.RU.
The challenge of this issue is that the agreement for domain ownership was not properly documented. I currently cannot supply any records of this agreement, that stipulate details of the agreement, or outlines conditions of domain name transfers. The only document that exists is a memorandum of intentions between the first wave of Rambler investors and me.
As there is not a legally binding document outlining domain ownership transfer details, I am having difficulty gaining back ownership of these domain names. I would like to resolve this issue without litigation. Nevertheless, if I don’t get a clear response and Rambler continues using my content on the sites, you will leave me with no other option than to seek legal action.
The history of Mama.ru and Doktor.ru creation can be found in the news archives:
http://netoscope.narod.ru/profile/2001/07/12/2883.html
http://www.media-atlas.ru/whoiswho/?a=view&id=1483
The first versions of these sites, with my copyright, can be found in web.archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.mama.ru
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.doktor.ru
I would like an opportunity to discuss my situation in more detail, and provide you with documents and evidence in support of my case.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Voloshin
