Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com) published an article tonight on Verisign and the CFIT case pending against it.
The article quotes Mark McLaughli, Chief Executive of Verisign saying that the company “has 90 days following the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ July 9 decision to decide whether it will request further appellate review … at the Supreme Court level, or have the case remanded for trial in district court.”
The article goes on to quote Bret Fausett, the attorney representing the Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT), who said he believes “VeriSign has until Oct. 18 “to file a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, which he thinks the company is likely to opt for, rather than a trial.”
“As far as I can tell, the strategy is to push off any trial on the merits for as long as possible,” Fausett is quoted as saying.
“The U.S. Supreme Court appeal–even if, as is likely, the Court declined to hear the appeal, would push off our inevitable return to the trial court by another year.”
Isn’t it true that the NIC has been a government-created monopoly since the beginning, when it was agreed that fees could be charged for what had previously been free registrations?
VRSN has had a pretty good run. And how much did SRI make from the sale of the NIC “business” to what is now VRSN? They did pretty well, too. But the natives are growing restless.
This case sort of reminds me of the case against the company that had a monopoly on breast cancer screening involving the BRCA genes, also brought by a “Coalition” of people who were fed up with paying high fees year after year. From a legal perspective, the patent owner should have won; but the court agreed with the “Coalition”. Now the company has to wait patiently for an appeal while their business takes a massive hit.
I think VRSN should be taking this seriously, no matter how weak the Coalition’s case may seem. Just from the blurb in the last article I can tell the lawyer for this Coalition has some of the facts wrong. Maybe with a year to do some homework he’ll get it straight.
Perma
I think VRSN is taking the case very seriously is wall street.
The case against VRSN is a good one.
The lawyer who has been representing the CFIT against Verisign wants the case to go to trial where it can be heard on the merits and get a decision.
VRSN wants to keep delaying the case as many including myself believe that once this case does get into a courtroom VRSN will lost and rates will have to roll back or at least be frozen.
Contract is up for presumptive renewal in 2012, could be perfect timing
Don’t underestimate the power of the “security” component VeriSign will argue. That is what allowed the rate increases to be approved and let’s not kid ourselves, it had to pass muster with US Commerce before it got to ICANN. The US government likes things just as they are right now. Safe, reliable and within the control of a stable(?) corporation right here in the USA.
Also, domains are very affordable as well so hard to argue they aren’t. FYI. The 20B that was paid for the registries translates to 47+ years of $6 fees for 75MM names.
Listen folks: The only people making money domaining are the domain registrars and domain extension marketers. They would tell you anything about domains so that you register domains and when you do so they got you in their trap. You have to renew the domains every year hoping you will sell them at a exorbitant price and that will never happen, before yes, not now. To sell a domain name today you must be lucky, just like winning a lottery. Don’t please go by SEDO sale reports. They are fake. Most of the sale Sedo reports are fictitious, they never took place, if they take place then is a fixed sale. They would register any names any day and they would sell to themselves and then report the sale, this is to give impression that domains are selling well. Be smart Folks