9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of name.space's 2013 Lawsuit Against ICANN
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles was correct in 2013 in dismissing name.space’s antitrust lawsuit against ICANN on the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) program. Name.space had claimed ICANN’s gTLD program…
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rules, which set the fee for new gTLD applications at $185,000, violated the Sherman Act and trademark laws. The 9th Circuit said Friday ICANN “is not a competitor” in the three markets name.space claimed ICANN had monopolized -- the TLD registry market, the international domain name market and the defensive registration services market. The 9th Circuit also said name.space’s trademark claims that ICANN accepted claims for TLDs that name.space was using on its “alternative” Internet were “not ripe for adjudication.” ICANN is “pleased that the Ninth Circuit agreed with the dismissal of the claims against ICANN in this matter,” General Counsel John Jeffrey said in a statement. “The rules and procedures governing the New gTLD Program were created through a global, inclusive, open and multistakeholder process, following a bottom-up policy development process leading to consensus-based policy recommendations.” Name.space didn’t comment.