VeriSign Files Suit Over ICANN Authority

Internet infrastructure company VeriSign Inc. sued a domain-name oversight body Thursday, saying it overstepped its authority when it prevented VeriSign from introducing new Web-address services.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers has no authority to prevent VeriSign from rolling out a search engine for users who mistype Internet addressees, VeriSign said, as well as another feature that allows users to sign up for a waiting list for desirable domain names.

“This brazen attempt by ICANN to assume ‘regulatory power’ over VeriSign’s business is a serious abuse of ICANN’s technical coordination function,” said VeriSign in the suit, which was filed in Los Angeles.

An ICANN spokesman declined to comment.

Unlike other search engines, VeriSign’s Site Finder popped up on users’ screens when they typed in the name of a website that did not exist. Technical experts said it could affect the stability of the Internet, and rivals said VeriSign was abusing its position as administrator of the database of .com addresses.

ICANN ordered VeriSign to temporarily shut down the search service in October 2003 while it underwent technical review. The reviewing body has not yet issued a decision on the service.

Other proposed VeriSign services, such as the waiting list and a means to translate addresses into non-Roman alphabets, have been unnecessarily held up as well, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said.

Though ICANN restructured itself to operate more efficiently last year, a VeriSign official said the group was still cumbersome.

“Working the ICANN process is like being nibbled to death by ducks,” said Tom Galvin, VeriSign’s vice president for government relations. “It takes forever, it doesn’t make sense, and in the end we’re still dead in the water.”

Incorporated in 1998, ICANN oversees management of the Internet’s addressing system.