The tables are turned: now Donuts can delay Verisign

Waiting for the .Web.

Many curse words were muttered about Verisign during the process of designing the new top level domain name program. Verisign spread plenty of FUD to delay the program.

Now, the biggest new TLD company gets to take a turn at delaying Verisign.

Verisign struck a deal to acquire rights to operate .web from Nu Dot Co prior to a $135 million auction for the top level domain. Donuts, Afilias and other applicants cried foul. Donuts subsequently sued but a judge tossed out the lawsuit. Donuts, however, says it “will continue to utilize the tools at its disposal to address this procedural failure.”

That might mean Donuts will file for an Independent Review, which would delay Verisign’s rollout of the .web domain.

This would be an expensive course of action for Donuts if delay is its only goal. It clearly wants a piece of the action, too. It’s miffed that the auction wasn’t private, which would have resulted in a $20 million + payday for Donuts had the final price been the same.

And it’s not like Verisign will be hurting while it waits to launch .web. It keeps printing money, whereas new TLD companies were hemorrhaging it while they waited for the program to launch. It’s also still unclear if Verisign’s goal in buying the domain name was to keep it out of others’ hands, or if it saw selling .web domains at a business opportunity.