Domains in a divorce

scottmccloud · Mar 24, 2014

Have domains ever come up in a divorce case, that is, has a court ever placed a value on domains owned by one party as part of a settlement, and if so, what was it and how did they value them?

I'd be interested in finding out the answer, basically due to the totally subjective nature of domain valuation.

I'm not getting divorced, it's one of those questions I've always wondered about.

Edwin · Mar 24, 2014

From a US site (UK law may be different)

The first step, as with any asset in divorce, is determining whether a party has any digital or virtual assets and identifying those assets. Digital assets are intangibles that only exist in a digital form (i.e. data in the form of binary digits). Such assets may include: email and social network accounts; websites; domain names; digital media, such as pictures, music, e‑books, movies, and video; blogs; reward points; digital storefronts; artwork and data storage accounts. These assets, although intangible, are marital property and are subject to characterization, valuation and division, during divorce.

Since this is still an emerging issue, national case law is sparse on what divorce courts are doing with digital and virtual assets; however, there is no indication that a digital or virtual asset would be characterized differently than a tangible asset.

http://www.dallasbar.org/content/digital-and-virtual-assets-divorce

Edwin · Mar 24, 2014

Hypothetically speaking, I wonder what happens when one party to the divorce is extremely tech savvy, and the other is completely in the dark about such matters ("Oh, I leave all that sort of thing to my partner...")?

Probably best not to answer

scottmccloud · Mar 24, 2014

Thanks Edwin, that was something I thought of as well.

Could purchasing domains in such an instance be used as a way of devaluing one's assets that were to be assessed in court as part of a possible settlement?

bulkcorn · Mar 24, 2014

scottmccloud said:
Have domains ever come up in a divorce case, that is, has a court ever placed a value on domains owned by one party as part of a settlement, and if so, what was it and how did they value them?

I'd be interested in finding out the answer, basically due to the totally subjective nature of domain valuation.

I'm not getting divorced, it's one of those questions I've always wondered about.

I valued them @ £1 each! I think if your partner was a domainer, they might not let that pass!

murph · Mar 25, 2014

Depends if the names are under your name or a company for starters. Company would obviously mean they can't be touched. Otherwise, as said, it's going to be down to whether the partner understands their value.