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VeriSign Loses Another Round In Site Finder Battle Against ICANN

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

01 September 2004

Verisign suffered another setback last week in its attempt to gain court support for its Site Finder service when a federal district court judge dismissed VeriSign's argument that ICANN's ban on this tactic amounted to a violation of US antitrust law.

Verisign launched its action against ICANN in February, after the latter organisation argued that VeriSign's Site Finder service (which redirects those who mis-type .com or .net domain names to paid search listings on its own site) disrupted internet use for many by causing anti-spam filters to malfunction.

In May, Judge A. Howard Matz ruled in the Central District Court of California that: "Its (VeriSign's) complaint seems to be based on the unstated assumption that ICANN has a duty to help it compete more effectively. Verisign has not alleged anything more than injury to its own business and therefore, does not have antitrust standing."

Now Judge Matz has issued a 16-page opinion rejecting Verisign's argument that ICANN had been influenced by competing companies: "VeriSign's contentions are deficient," said the judge. "There is nothing inherently conspiratorial about a 'bottom-up' policy development process that considers or even solicits input from advisory groups."

"What this means is the case will be heard in a California state court," said Tom Galvin, vice president of VeriSign's government relations group. "And while the venue will change, our objective to gain clarity regarding ICANN's appropriate role and the process for the introduction of new services does not."

VeriSign defends Site Finder by saying it offers a better way to handle incorrect url's than the unhelpful error messages that some Web browsers currently provide. Most problems it caused were "minor or inconvenient," VeriSign said in a presentation to the ICANN committee. But ICANN last month issued a report on Site Finder saying it has 'undesirable' consequences.

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