Federal Court Rejects Donuts' Requested Delay of .web gTLD Auction
ICANN proceeded with the start of its public auction of the .web generic top-level domain (gTLD) Wednesday, after the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday against granting domain registry Donuts' application for a temporary restraining order. Donuts had…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
sought the temporary restraining order Friday in connection with its lawsuit against ICANN, in which the registry is claiming ICANN was negligent for not exercising due diligence in investigating what Donuts believes are discrepancies in rival .web applicant Nu Dot Co's disclosures about its ownership. Donuts also claimed ICANN's failure to investigate the claims is a breach of contract and an instance of allowing unfair competition (see 1607250051). District Judge Percy Anderson faulted Donuts in his ruling (in Pacer) against the restraining order, saying he would have denied the request even if ICANN hadn't voiced its opposition (see 1607260057). Donuts failed to follow correct procedure by not contacting ICANN counsel about its restraining order request in advance of filing the lawsuit or correctly serving ICANN with the lawsuit, Anderson said. The restraining order request is also incorrect on the merits, since the evidence in ICANN's opposition filing “and the weakness of [Donuts'] efforts to enforce vague terms” in the ICANN bylaws and the gTLD application guidebook show Donuts “has failed to establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits” in the lawsuit, “raise serious issues, or show that the balance of hardships tips sharply in its favor,” Anderson said. “Moreover, because the results of the auction could be unwound, [Donuts] has not met its burden to establish that it will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the preliminary injunctive relief it seeks.” Anderson also said Donuts didn't sufficiently prove jurisdiction in its lawsuit, but gave the registry until Aug. 8 to file an amended complaint to address the jurisdiction issue. "While we’re disappointed in the court’s decision, we recognize that the standards for granting a temporary restraining order are heightened and not necessarily indicative of the merits of the underlying case," a Donuts spokesman said. "We are now participating in" the .web auction and will continue "to reserve all available rights regarding this matter."