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 a ban on the tactic by the group responsible for managing the Internet's infrastructure amounted to a violation of United States antitrust law. The Internet registry and services company had argued that competitors that are part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) succeeded in stymieing VeriSign's plans for its Site Finder service by providing advice to the group's board of directors.
That does not compute, according to Judge A. Howard Matz of the Central District Court of California.
"VeriSign's contentions are deficient," Matz stated in a 16-page opinion. "There is nothing inherently conspiratorial about a 'bottom-up' policy development process that considers or even solicits input from advisory groups."
The court's ruling is the latest blow to VeriSign's attempts to gain support for its plan to parlay its government-granted monopoly over the administration of the databases for the .com and .net domains into better profits. VeriSign could not immediately be reached for comment.
