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ICANN responds to Afilias’ .Web emergency stay request

by — Policy & Law 2 Comments

Non-profit domain overseer argues that an emergency stay isn’t required.

ICANN logoICANN has responded to a request by Afilias to stay any ICANN actions that would further the delegation of the .Web top level domain while the International Centre for Dispute Resolution considers a complaint that Afilias filed. (Here’s the backstory.)

In its opposition to the emergency stay, ICANN points out that Afilias has participated in similar behavior to what Afilias is complaining about: buying and selling new TLDs. Afilias has acquired other TLDs and is trying to acquire more, and ICANN posits that the deal between Nu Dot Co and Verisign is essentially the same thing. I’m sure Afilias would argue that doing a deal before an auction is different, but it didn’t register any complaints when Automattic did something similar for .blog.

ICANN also points out that Afilias waited two years before lodging it formal complaint and asking for an emergency stay, which belittles the idea that there’s an emergency.

Also, if ICANN delegates .Web to Nu Dot Co, its contracts will allow it to cancel the agreement should the IRP be found in Afilias’ favor and ICANN’s board agrees.

The full response is here (pdf).

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Department of Justice closes investigation on Verisign running .web

by — Policy & Law 3 Comments

Verisign believes ICANN will now sign the .web contract with Nu Dot Co, and then transfer the domain to Verisign.

Verisign has announced that the antitrust investigation into the company’s plans to run the .web domain name has been closed, apparently without taking action. In an SEC filing, the company stated:

As the Company previously disclosed, on January 18, 2017, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) requesting certain material related to the Company becoming the registry operator for the .web gTLD. On January 9, 2018, the DOJ notified the Company that this investigation was closed. Verisign previously announced on August 1, 2016, that it had provided funds for Nu Dot Co’s successful bid for the .web gTLD and the Company anticipates that Nu Dot Co will now seek to execute the .web Registry Agreement with ICANN and thereafter assign it to Verisign upon consent from ICANN.

Verisign backed Nu Do Co’s winning $135 million bid for .web. Other applicants for .web believe that ICANN incorrectly overlooked changes at Nu Dot Co and asked for the auction to be set aside. Runner-up Afilias asked ICANN to honor its second-place bid while Donuts wanted the result tossed with the hopes of having a private auction in which the losers split the proceeds.

Concurrently, the U.S. government looked into antitrust issues with the .com operator also running .web. It’s possible they were looking into if the company’s bid for .web was merely a way to quash the domain, which many new TLD operators think could be the best new TLD. It could have also looked into if owning .com and .web would allow Verisign to dominate the market (more than it already does with .com).

Despite the U.S. government’s clearance, there’s still a dark cloud over .web. Donuts sued ICANN and the case was thrown out but Donuts appealed. The appeals court is currently considering the matter.

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ICANN files motion to dismiss Donuts’ .Web lawsuit

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

ICANN says Donuts can’t sue and asks for court to dismiss case.

ICANN has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit brought by a Donuts’-owned company over the results of an auction for .Web.

Donuts was one of seven applicants for the .web top level domain name. Another applicant, Nu Dot Co, won an ICANN auction of last resort for $135 million, and will therefore be awarded the domain name.

However, Nu Dot Co had a deal with Verisign (NYSE: VRSN) in which Verisign bankrolled the auction and Nu Dot Co agreed to transfer rights in the name to Verisign after the auction.

Donuts believes Nu Dot Co was required to file changes to its application as a result of this deal and an alleged executive departure, and that Verisign essentially sidestepped the application process by striking a deal with Nu Dot Co. Click here to continue reading…

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Verisign releases statement about .Web

by — Uncategorized 7 Comments

Verisign plans to “quickly grow .web”.

Verisign (NYSE:VRSN) released a statement this morning about .web.

It said what we already know: Verisign backed Nu Dot Co’s bid for .web. Once Nu Do Co executes the contract, it will seek to transfer the contract to Verisign through the ICANN process.

I’m curious how much Nu Dot Co will receive for playing this role. If it had gone to a private auction, it probably would have banked about $10 million by splitting proceeds amongst the losers. So you can assume Verisign paid it millions for the deal.

But there might be more to it. Verisign’s 10-Q stated that it will have to pay about $130 million for the transfer of contractual rights. Was this merely “about,” and the number was an estimate because it was a last-minute insertion in the 10-Q? Or will it pay some sort of royalty or earnout to Nu Dot Co? We’ll have to wait and see.

As for Verisign’s plans for the domain, it stated:

As the most experienced and reliable registry operator, Verisign is well-positioned to widely distribute .web. Our expertise, infrastructure, and partner relationships will enable us to quickly grow .web and establish it as an additional option for registrants worldwide in the growing TLD marketplace. Our track record of over 19 years of uninterrupted availability means that businesses and individuals using .web as their online identity can be confident of being reliably found online. And these users, along with our global distribution partners, will benefit from the many new domain name choices that .web will offer.

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STRAAT pulls .movie application as it partners with another company

by — Services 0 Comments

Company withdraws .movie application just before initial evaluation results were to be announced.

For the second time in as many months, Nu Dot Co, LLC, a subsidiary of STRAAT Investments, has withdrawn a new top level domain application and partnered up with another applicant.

The latest application withdrawn was for .movie, which faced six competitors.

Last month it withdrew its application for .book.

“We’ve been working out the details of a strategic partnership with one of the other applicants, and that’s the reason we dropped it,” said Jose Ignacio Rasco, CFO of Nu Dot Co. It dropped it just ahead of when the application would have gone through its initial evaluation, at which point the refund would have been less.

“We’ve got some interesting deals in the works, which is actually a fun part in this whole process,” he added.

Some applicants have formed partnerships to resolve contention sets, such as the one between Top Level Domain Holdings and Uniregistry for .country. Others, such as a three way tie-up for .online, still face competition from other applicants.

That’s the case with both .book and .movie, both of which face heavyweight competition. Amazon.com and Google have applied for both of these strings.

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