Lawsuits against ICANN and fresh TLDs start to roll in

Two prior TLD applicants sue over specific top level domains.

As plans for a 2013 rollout of fresh top level domains marches forward, two firms have sued ICANN to stop it from issuing certain top level domain names.

Both lawsuits come courtesy of firms that applied in the “proof of concept” round back in 2000.

A few days back DomainIncite noted regarding a suit filed by Name.Space against ICANN. Name.space runs an alternative root with 482 top level domains.

Today I received a copy of a complaint (pdf) brought by Image Online Design. It specifically targets the .web domain name, which it applied for in 2000 in the “proof of concept” round. It wasn’t approved. It makes a .web top level domain available in alternative DNS root systems.

I think the argument that these firms have rights to the names since they run them in alternative root systems is a bit of a long shot. That they applied for domains in the proof of concept round might have more legs.

Image Online Design is represented by David Steele, the attorney who frequently files cybersquatting lawsuits on behalf of Verizon.