ICANN's Application for Temporary Restraining Order Against RegisterFly Has Been Granted

April 18, 2007; 12:58 AM
RegisterFly has been ordered by US Federal Court Judge, Manuel J. Real, to hand over to ICANN current and accurate data for all of its domain names now that ICANN's application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against RegisterFly was granted yesterday.

Under the TRO, RegisterFly is also obliged to provide this data every seven days, plus immediately allow ICANN staff access to the company's records and books in order to perform an audit.

"We ask RegisterFly and its management to co-operate fully with the order," said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN President and CEO.

The TRO, entered by the Judge Real in the US Federal Court located in the Central District of California on Monday April 16, 2007, encompasses all domains registered by RegisterFly customers, including those registered under any proxy registration service, such as the company's own "ProtectFly." The Court has also scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for April 26, 2007, which, if ICANN prevails, will extend the force and effect of the TRO for a longer period of time.

ICANN's repeated requests for accurate registrant data from RegisterFly were initially refused by the company and then later partially-granted, although ICANN has remained concerned over the accuracy of some of the data, finding a significant portion of it deficient.

With current and accurate registrant data, ICANN will be in a position to initiate a bulk transfer to another registrar, either with RegisterFly's cooperation while the company remains an ICANN-accredited registrar, or unilaterally if RegisterFly's accreditation is terminated.

In addition to seeking a Preliminary Injunction, ICANN will continue pursuing RegisterFly in the Central District of California for, among other things, breach of contract.

The TRO is available at: http://www.icann.org/legal/icann-v-registerfly/icann-v-registerfly-revised-tro-16apr07.pdf

Aside from the lawsuit, ICANN has also initiated a review of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) in an effort to reduce the possibility of this situation being repeated in future.

ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers.

These include domain names (like .ORG, .MUSEUM and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.