ICANN, Verisign battle over meaning of “registry services”

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has countersued Verisign in the running dispute over which entity gets to offer the lucrative Site Finder and Waiting List services.  Verisign, which has the ICANN contract to administer the domain-name function, previously sued ICANN, claiming that ICANN was violating Verisign’s agreement by offering the services itself in competition with Verisign.

In today’s action, ICANN claims that the contract that authorizes Verisign to administer the domain-name process does not permit Verisign to offer the services.  The key to the dispute is what the contract means by “registry services”—a phrase that apparently was adopted before anyone realized how lucrative the add-on services could be.

ICANN also is seeking to have the dispute moved from a California court to arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce.