VeriSign Is Told to Refile Lawsuit

The firm that serves as the Internet’s traffic cop failed to support its antitrust lawsuit against an oversight body and must refile the claim, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz gave VeriSign Inc. until June 7 to bolster and refile its case against the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization designated by the U.S. government to oversee Internet domain names.

VeriSign controls the computers that contain the master list of domain-name suffixes, such as “.com,” and that tell all other computers where to find specific websites.

It also manages directories for the two most popular suffixes, “.com” and “.net.”

Internet computers intersect with VeriSign’s more than 11 billion times a day to find out how to route e-mail and Web traffic.

VeriSign, based in Mountain View, Calif., claims that decisions by ICANN stymied efforts to expand its business. The company sued ICANN in February, accusing it of, among other things, illegally restraining competition.

In his ruling on ICANN’s motions to dismiss the case, Matz said VeriSign’s attempt to substantiate the antitrust allegations against ICANN were “awfully vague.”