Verizon Lawsuit Against DirectNIC — Judge Dismisses

Judge grants Motion to Dismiss against sizable domain name registrar and its parent firm.

The judge presiding over Verizon’s cybersquatting lawsuit has granted a Motion to Dismiss (pdf) filed by Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., directNIC, LLC and Domain Contender, LLC for lack of personal jurisdiction. Domain Contender is a subsidiary of directNIC and directNIC is a subsidiary of Intercosmos.

Verizon argued that the entities had operations in Florida. The court found otherwise:

Verizon argues that the IMG Defendants are subject to specific jurisdiction under the long-arm statute since they purportedly have an office in Florida. Still, as pointed out by the IMG Defendants, there is not a shred of plausible evidence in support of this contention.

Verizon pointed to a press release suggesting DirectNIC was opening to open an office in Tampa, but the court deemed it insufficient that a release mentioning future plans for an office proved that an office existed.

Verizon also noted that Donny Simonton, which the firm states is CIO of Intercosmos, attended TRAFFIC in Florida in 2007:

In addition, the non-Internet activity alleged (specifically, the presence of one IMG employee at a Florida trade show) does not constitute minimum contacts with Florida.

The firms told the court they are Louisiana entities.