September 1, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to reports, Verisign (verisign.com) has decided to continue its antitrust claims against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org) despite the fact it had a similar case thrown out last week in US District Court. VeriSign, which manages the .com and .net domains, reportedly filed a similar, but pared-down suit last Friday.
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At the heart of the dispute between VeriSign and ICANN is a contract between the two companies that ICANN alleges forbids VeriSign from offering services such as the controversial Site Finder service. Site Finder redirects users to a VeriSign-sponsored page when non-existent or misspelled URLs are entered into a Web browser. The service has raised the ire of critics for its alleged anti-competitiveness. VeriSign claims these services do not require ICANN approval. ICANN disagrees, and VeriSign contends this costs the company money in delays.
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The latest suit reportedly focuses on breach-of-contract allegations and asks the court to rule for a declaratory judgment that ICANN should stay clear of VeriSign?s business. It also includes similar antitrust claims.
