[registrars] Interesting Opinion From ICANN

[John Berryhill]

During the course of a disputed matter, ICANN's registrar liaison has opined
that a registrar cannot be a registrant of a domain name registered through
said registrar.

Specifically, (with information redacted), ICANN's registrar liaison, Mr.
Tim Cole, has adopted the following position:

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Given that this entity is an accredited registrar, it would appear that this
registration may have been in violation of paragraph 3.7.7 et seq. of the
RAA, which "require[s] all Registered Name Holders to enter into an
electronic or paper registration agreement with Registrar . . . ."
Specifically, because a party cannot enter into a binding contract with
itself, it would appear that such a registration was allowed without the
requisite registration agreement (unless there is another, distinct legal
entity by the name of [redacted] LLC to which the name was registered).
---------

It is important that, henceforth, all registrars check the status of their
own domain names, since ICANN's position is that the following domain names
are improperly registered:


Registrant:
Network Solutions, LLC
   Network Solutions LLC
   13861 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
   HERNDON, VA 20171
   US
   Domain Name: NETWORKSOLUTIONS.COM

Registrant:
   GoDaddy.com
   14455 N. Hayden Road
   Suite 219
   Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
   United States
   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)

   Domain Name: GODADDY.COM

Applying ICANN's logic to these registrations, since neither Network
Solutions nor GoDaddy may enter into a contract with itself, then the domain
names godaddy.com and networksolutions.com are improperly registered.

Fascinating.

John B. Berryhill, Ph.d. esq.
4 West Front St.
Media, PA 19063
(610) 565-5601 voice
(267) 386-8115 voicemail/fax
john at johnberryhill.com