McAfee’s Transfer of Contested Domain ‘Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test,’ Says Plaintiff
Pro se plaintiff James Linlor’s claim under a California statute that McAfee fraudulently transferred the cyberguard.com domain to Musarubra to avoid culpability for his cybersquatting allegations must be dismissed (see 2304260025), McAfee attorney Devanshi Somaya of Jackson Walker told U.S.…
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Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen for Northern California in San Jose in a virtual motions hearing Tuesday (docket 5:23-cv-385). Linlor alleges McAfee cybersquatted on the cyberguard.com domain, preventing him from starting a similarly named cybersecurity consultancy. McAfee asserts Linlor is suing the wrong defendant because it transferred the domain to Musarubra in 2021 with the divestiture of its enterprise cybersecurity business. Under the California Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (CUFTA), which is the basis for Linlor’s fraudulent transfer claim, “that statute discusses fraudulent transfer in cases of a creditor and a debtor,” said Somaya. “It’s simply inapplicable here, and that’s why we moved to dismiss that claim,” she said. Van Keulen told Linlor that “I read the statute the same way as McAfee has argued.” The Northern District of California sees the CUFTA often cited in bankruptcy cases involving “the movement of assets, where one party has already been adjudicated as a creditor and another as a debtor,” said the judge. “That’s not the situation here,” she said. “I understand how you’re using fraudulent transfer,” she told Linlor, “but I don’t see it as qualifying under the statutory use of fraudulent transfer.” Linlor finds it suspicious that McAfee transferred the domain to Musarubra Feb. 13, a week after McAfee was properly served with his complaint, he told the judge. “It strains credulity," not just after the filing of complaint, but after proper service, "that the key asset we’re discussing got moved,” he said: “It doesn’t pass the smell test.”