FYI --The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today reversed and remanded for further proceedings in the case of CFIT v VeriSign, Inc. The case alleges that the awarding of the present .com registry contract through the settlement entered into by ICANN with VeriSign was in violation of U.S. antitrust laws. My law firm prepared an amicus brief on behalf of the Internet Commerce Association which is cited by the Court as a decisive factor in reaching its decision. The Opinion is attached. Please pass this on to other interested parties.
From the decision:
Moreover, amicus in this case, the Internet Commerce Association ("ICA"), points out that when Smith and Weber were decided, "the present expired domain name market barely existed," and that today's conditions were "unanticipated only a few years ago." [15] Here CFIT's complaint alleges that every word in the English language is already registered as a domain name, and that desirable domain names can be difficult to come by. On appeal, our understanding of the distinct role and value of expiring domain names has also been significantly aided by the explanation provided by the ICA. As cogently explained by ICA, expiring domain names often carry with them a history of established web traffic and advertising support; when such names do expire, they "still maintain much of [their] prior inbound traffic," making them more valuable than domain names that have never before been registered. The district court, of course, did not have the benefit of briefing by amicus. With the benefit of this aid to our understanding, we are not prepared to affirm the district court's ruling that no separate market exists. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings. Philip S. Corwin Partner Butera & Andrews 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 500 Washington, DC 20004 202-347-6875 (office) 202-347-6876 (fax) 202-255-6172 (cell) "Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey