The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(Icann) has asked a US judge to dismiss most claims brought against
it in a lawsuit by VeriSign.
VeriSign, manager of the master databases of the .com and .net
internet domains, sued Icann in late February.
The company accused Icann, which oversees the internet's naming
system, of overstepping its contractual authority and improperly
attempting to regulate VeriSign's business, violating its charter
and its agreements with VeriSign.
Icann argued that six of VeriSign's claims related to antitrust,
breach of contract and other matters are not ripe for a court to
consider.
The parties first have to resolve a dispute about interpretation
of the contract between them, an issue brought in a seventh
VeriSign claim, Icann said.
"This is a dispute about the interpretation of a contract, which
VeriSign's seventh claim for relief appropriately seeks to
resolve," Icann said.
"Disagreeing with VeriSign is neither an antitrust violation nor
a breach of contract, and thus none of the first six claims has
merit."
VeriSign asserted in its lawsuit that Icann has improperly
attempted to become the de facto regulator of the domain name
system and, in doing so, prevented the introduction of new services
such as internationalised domain names and a back-ordering service
for domain names that would be good for internet users and promote
the growth of the internet.
VeriSign also claimed that Icann wrongly demanded that it take
down Site Finder, a disputed service that directed internet users
who typed in a nonexistent .com domain to a VeriSign website.
VeriSign turned on Site Finder last September and suspended the
service in early October under pressure from Icann.
One day after VeriSign filed suit against Icann, a group of
eight domain name registrars sued the organisation and VeriSign
seeking to stop the implementation of the back-ordering service,
saying it would dupe consumers into buying domain names they will
never be able to register.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service