Nov 13, 2000 : Advisory 13 November 2000
(13 November 2000) In a 10November 2000 Advisory, ICANN reported that Economic Solutions,Inc. (ESI) had filed suit in United States District Court inSt. Louis, Missouri, and sought a temporary restraining orderfrom that court to prohibit ICANN from establishing a ".biz"or ".ebiz" top-level domain (TLD) or any other TLDthat is similar to the country code for Belize, ".bz."
On 13 November, the courtdenied ESI's request for a temporary restraining order. Thecourt determined that ESI had not demonstrated that ICANN wassubject to being sued in Missouri. The court also determinedthat ESI had failed to back up its claims on the merits:
Neither has plaintiff [ESI] demonstrateda likelihood of success on the merits of the Lanham Act and unfaircompetition claims, given the uncertain status of the claimedproperty rights in the ".bz" domain designation, theprospective and uncertain nature of possible establishment oruse of assertedly competing TLDs, and questions concerning whetherdefendant's [ICANN's] role in the feared events could renderit, as opposed to others actually employing the ".biz"or ".ebiz" designations, liable for false designationor unfair competition. As to plaintiff's tortuous interferenceclaim, at this time defendant's proffered grounds for decliningto take the administrative actions sought by plaintiff do notsuggest a likelihood of success on the merits of plaintiff'sclaim. Furthermore, the tortuous interference claim and the allegationsunderlying it are unrelated to the substance of the TRO plaintiffseeks.
ICANN applauds this decision preservingthe integrity of the ongoing consensus-based process for movingtoward the establishment of new TLDs.
Reads: 1558 | Category: Domain Names | Source: ICANN : Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
URL source: http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr13nov00.htm
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