The suit, filed Thursday in the central district of California, said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unlawfully transformed itself over the last six years from a modest technical coordinating body into the "de facto regulator of the domain name system."
VeriSign, based in Mountain View, California, has sparred with ICANN over a number of issues, including whether a feature called Site Finder, which redirected many .com and .net false domains to a VeriSign site, was a threat to the Internet's security and stability.
The lawsuit, filed just days before next week's ICANN meetings in Rome, asks for a court order that would permit VeriSign to resume the Site Finder service.
"We have still to receive any information saying that Site Finder was going to be a threat to the stability or security of the Internet," said Tom Galvin, VeriSign's vice president for government relations. Galvin said the two organisations had been butting heads for years, and VeriSign eventually "realised our best option was to try to get some sort of clarity in the legal sense."
The lawsuit accuses ICANN of violating federal antitrust laws and asks the court to grant an injunction preventing it from doing anything to "interfere with" the reinstatement of Site Finder. It also asks for damages and a requirement that VeriSign be treated in a "fair, reasonable and equitable fashion" from now on.
ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey could not immediately be reached for comment.
Under its contract with ICANN, VeriSign operates the master database of all .com and .net domains, and collects a few dollars a year for each domain name from the scores of ICANN-accredited registrars who sell domain names to the public.
Interpretation: How dare a standards body prevent us making money at the expense of the entire Internet community?
Well VeriSign, you have simply confirmed to me that my move away from registering my domain with you (as a result of your internal incompetence and subsequent arrogance) was absolutely the smartest move I have ever made.
From now on, when ever anyone asks me who they should register their domain with, the answer will start with words to the meaning of "Definitely NOT VeriSign. Their actions seem to demonstrate a very poor grasp of standard and the wisdom of complying with them. I can only see this resulting in problems for them and other Internet users, as time goes by. Rather, I would recommend..."