Registrars End Effort to Block Domain Name Service

February 2005

 A group of registrars suing to block a controversial service for the back-ordering of domain names has dropped its lawsuit, but the service remains mired in legal disputes.

Eight registrars last year sued VeriSign Inc. and the domain name system's main oversight body, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), to stop the so-called wait-listing service or WLS.

Last month, however, a California state court dismissed the case on the request of the registrar coalition, an attorney representing the registrars confirmed this week.

The registrars dropped the lawsuit because of changes in the market for registering expired domain names, said the attorney, Derek Newman of Newman & Newman, Attorneys at Law LLP in Seattle.

The WLS, in a process run by VeriSign, would allow those seeking a particular domain name to pay for the right to claim it in the event that the current registration expires.