[bc-gnso] FW: 9th Circuit Reverses in CFIT Suit Against VeriSign; Cites ICA for Decisive Role

Phil Corwin pcorwin at butera-andrews.com
Fri Jun 5 21:35:59 UTC 2009


FYI --The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today reversed and remanded for further proceedings  in the case of CFIT v VeriSign, Inc. The case alleges that the awarding of the present .com registry contract through the settlement entered into by ICANN with VeriSign was in violation of U.S. antitrust laws. My law firm prepared an amicus brief on behalf of the Internet Commerce Association which is cited by the Court as a decisive factor in reaching its decision.  The Opinion is attached.

Please pass this on to other interested parties.


>From the decision:


Moreover, amicus in

this case, the Internet Commerce Association ("ICA"), points

out that when Smith and Weber were decided, "the present

expired domain name market barely existed," and that today's

conditions were "unanticipated only a few years ago."

[15] Here CFIT's complaint alleges that every word in the

English language is already registered as a domain name, and

that desirable domain names can be difficult to come by. On

appeal, our understanding of the distinct role and value of

expiring domain names has also been significantly aided by

the explanation provided by the ICA. As cogently explained

by ICA, expiring domain names often carry with them a history

of established web traffic and advertising support; when

such names do expire, they "still maintain much of [their]

prior inbound traffic," making them more valuable than

domain names that have never before been registered. The

district court, of course, did not have the benefit of briefing

by amicus. With the benefit of this aid to our understanding,

we are not prepared to affirm the district court's ruling that no

separate market exists. We therefore reverse and remand for

further proceedings.



Philip S. Corwin
Partner
Butera & Andrews
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004

202-347-6875 (office)

202-347-6876 (fax)

202-255-6172 (cell)

"Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey


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