Network Solutions And Register.com Sued Over URL Patent

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

20 January 2004

In a suit filed in California's US District Court last Monday, newly created company, the Nizza Group claimed that domain name registrars, Network Solutions and Register.com have infringed on a patent granted to the firm's principals, Troy Javaher and Frank Weyer on December 20, 2003.

The patent, applied for by the two men in November 1999, covers a "method, apparatus and business system for online communications with online and offline recipients".

In practical terms, this covers the assignation of e-mail addresses and URLs to members of a group or company in such a way that the '@' sign in the e-mail address represents the dot in the URL. Under the naming system, every member of the group would have their own URL following the model of "name.subdomain.domain", and an e-mail address in the "name@subdomain.domain" format.

According to the patent application:

"The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art by providing a method, apparatus and business system that allow a user to quickly communicate online with a member of a particular business, professional or other group regardless of whether the member has an internet presence (e.g. e-mail address or website) and without the user needing to know or find the internet address for the recipient."

However, some observers have suggested that the patent should never have been granted, as all that it describes is a way in which the existing infrastructure of the internet domain naming system can be used to produce a specific end result.

The lawsuit seeks undisclosed damages and an injunction against the two domain name registrars. However, Mr Weyer (who works as a patent attorney, and is representing himself in the case) explained last week that:

"Ultimately, we are not seeking to prevent Network Solutions and Register.com from selling URLs and e-mail addresses. We are seeking to license the naming method, if they're interested. And if they're not, then the patent entitles us to an injunction."

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