Internet entrepreneur Gary Kremen (who later founded Match.com and Clean Power Finance) registered the domain name sex.com with Network Solutions for a nominal fee in 1994.

[1] Stephen M. Cohen, who had recently completed a prison sentence after being convicted of fraud, envisioned that a website called "sex.com" could generate significant advertising revenues.

[4] In a separate proceeding, the district court ruled that Cohen had committed fraud, and rendered his ownership of sex.com to be null and void because he had acquired the domain name via a fraudulent letter to Network Solutions.

[6] Meanwhile Kremen, despite winning a substantial monetary award against Cohen, appealed the district court ruling in which Network Solutions was absolved of liability.

Under this interpretation, Network Solutions had violated contract law by giving away Kremen's property without due diligence and carelessly accepting Cohen's fraudulent representations.

Cohen declared personal bankruptcy and absconded to Mexico, where he eluded capture for several years until being deported by Mexican authorities for immigration violations in 2005.

[9] The case also revealed the need to address whether traditional contract law was equipped to handle the buying and selling, and even the theft, of domain names as the World Wide Web developed.

[11][12] The saga was also the topic of the book Sex.com: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet's Crown by journalist Kieren McCarthy.