Texas court claims jurisdiction over ICANN and states ICANN can stay a UDRP proceeding

An interesting case from a Texas court.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas has issued a ruling stating that it has jurisdiction over ICANN in a bankruptcy case and that ICANN must stay a UDRP proceeding.

The case involves FunnyGames.com, which is in control of a receiver in a bankruptcy case. The receiver states the domain name has been appraised for $400,000.

FunnyGames.com was hit with a UDRP last month. The receiver in the case asked the court for an emergency motion forcing ICANN to stay the proceeding at World Intellectual Property Organization.

ICANN responded by arguing that it can’t stay the proceeding — only WIPO can. It told the court “ICANN does not play any role in administering or governing proceedings under the UDRP…” It also stated that the court had no jurisdiction over ICANN.

The court disagreed. It stated that since ICANN created UDRP and approves of arbiters, that:

It is no leap in logic to find that ICANN has the authority to stay the instant UDRP claim against Funnygames.com. The Court can draw no other inference other than that it simply has chosen not to.

The court also stated it had statutory jurisdiction in this case “but by virtue of this matter being a federal equity receivership proceeding.”

[Hat tip: Bret Fausett]