Currently, if a company wishes to register a .com or .net domain, the registrar who secures the domain on the company’s behalf must file a registration request with VeriSign, Inc., the registry operator that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has granted sole rights to those domains. So when VeriSign secured -- without competitive bidding -- a five-year extension to its control over .com domains which permitted price increases for domain registrations, a coalition of Internet domain registrars, registrants and back order service providers known as the Coalition For ICANN Transparency Inc. (CFIT) filed suit against VeriSign and ICANN in federal court in California. The suit alleged that VeriSign had monopolized the markets for the registration of both new and expiring .com and .net domains and that VeriSign had conspired with ICANN to monopolize and restrain trade in these markets. Late last year, the court dismissed these claims, finding that no monopolizable separate market existed for expired domain names, and that CFIT had not shown that an antitrust injury had occurred.
© Copyright 2006 Steptoe & Johnson LLP. Steptoe & Johnson LLP
The law blog that focuses on ICT and IP Law in South Africa, EU and the USA
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