A federal district judge dismissed the anti-trust portion of Verisign’s complaint against ICANN: Verisign v. ICANN.
For background, let me refer you to this article by Jonathan Weinberg in the University of Ottawa Journal of Law and Tech: Site Finder and Internet Governance
On September 15, 2003, VeriSign, Inc., the company that operates the databases that allow Internet users to reach any Internet resource ending in .com or .net, introduced a new service it called Site Finder. Less than three weeks later, after widespread protest from the technical community, at least three lawsuits, and a stern demand from ICANN (the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, which has undertaken responsibility for managing the Internet domain name space), VeriSign agreed to shut Site Finder down.
Verisign then sued ICANN for violating federal anti-trust law and for breach of contract.
Steven Forrest has covered the ruling well: Core Issue Remains As VeriSign vs. ICANN Moves to State Court, Lawsuit Coverage, and ICANN Spin
CircleID: VeriSign’s Anti-Trust Claim Against ICANN Dismissed
News.com: VeriSign’s antitrust suit against ICANN dismissed
Internet domain name registry VeriSign just can’t seem to convince anyone that redirecting misspelled Web addresses to its own site is a good thing.
A federal district court judge on Thursday threw out VeriSign’s legal arguments that ICANN’s ban on this tactic amounted to a violation of U.S. antitrust law.
ICANN’s 85 page report on Sitefinder: Redirection in the Com and Net Domains
In 95 pages, Verisign responds. See also some excerpts and analysis from Steven Forrest: VeriSign Responds to SSAC on SiteFinder Report.
