District Court Temporarily Halts ICANN Delegation of .africa gTLD, Amid Lawsuit
The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles directed ICANN not to issue the .africa generic top-level domain (gTLD), granting a temporary restraining order sought by the DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust that halts delegation of the gTLD until after a ruling is…
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issued in DCA’s lawsuit over its claim to the gTLD. ICANN had chosen to delegate the gTLD to ZA Central Registry over DCA and issued an emergency resolution Thursday “to prepare to move forward” with delegation of the gTLD. DCA disputed ICANN’s delegation decision and won a binding independent review process ruling at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in 2015 that found ICANN violated its bylaws after DCA’s earlier 2013 challenge to the .africa delegation decision. U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner in Los Angeles ruled Friday there are “serious questions going to the merits” of DCA’s case. The registry “has demonstrated that once the [generic] TLD is issued, it will be unable to obtain those rights elsewhere. Moreover, the injury it will suffer cannot be compensated through monetary damages,” Klausner said in his order. ICANN claimed “the African governments and the ICANN community will suffer prejudice if the delegation of the gTLD is delayed,” Klausner said. The restraining order “will allow the Court time to consider arguments” from DCA, the registry said in a news release. ICANN said it plans to file a brief on the case March 14 and will participate in oral argument April 4, “after which the Court will make a decision about whether or not ICANN can proceed to delegation, even though the lawsuit is still proceeding.”