Judge dismisses Verisign’s lawsuit against .XYZ: Breaking

10 month ordeal is over following judge grants summary judgment.

That jury trial taking place in Virginia next week…won’t take place following all.

Judge Claude M. Hilton has granted XYZ.com’s motion for summary judgement (pdf). The judge will issue a memorandum opinion shortly.

Verisign had filed a false advertising suit against .XYZ and its founder Daniel Negari in December. Verisign was upset that Negari was disparaging .com and claiming that .XYZ was the next .com.

At the center of Verisign’s argument was that .XYZ gave away free .xyz domain names and then used these “inflated” registrations to show .XYZ’s success, and thereby harm .com.

The lawsuit ensnared a number of third parties who Verisign wanted documents from, counting competitors such as Donuts. Verisign also demanded documents from ICANN.

.XYZ’s motion for summary judgment was filed last month under seal, so it’s unknown what arguments the firm made for the dismissal.

Update: .XYZ has released a statement saying that it spend over $1 million to defend the lawsuit.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, .xyz had only been globally available for 6 months. We were shocked that an industry-giant would file such claims against my modest business. I also took it as a compliment,” stated XYZ’s CEO and Founder Daniel Negari. As stated by XYZ’s General Counsel, Grant Carpenter, “these tactics appear to be part of a coordinated anti-competitive scheme by
Verisign to stunt competition and maintain its competitive advantage in the industry.”

I have also reached out to Verisign for comment.

More to come…