Dotster, Inc. v. INTERNET CORP. FOR ASSIG. NAMES & NUM.

PROCEEDINGS (IN CHAMBERS): ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

On September 8, 2003, Plaintiffs Dot-ster, Inc., Go Daddy Software, Inc., and eNom, Incorporated (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction. On September 15, 2003, Defendant Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN” or “Defendant”) filed its Opposition. On September 22, 2003, Plaintiffs filed a Reply. The Motion came regularly for hearing on October 20, 2003. After hearing oral argument on the Motion, the Court took the matter under submission. After reviewing the moving, opposing, and reply papers and hearing oral argument, the Court rules as follows:

I. Facts and Procedural History

ICANN is a not-for-profit corporation organized in 1998. Pursuant to a series of agreements with the United States Department of Commerce, ICANN is responsible for administering certain aspects of the Internet’s domain name system. As part of its responsibilities, ICANN accredits companies known- as “registrars” that make Internet domain names available to consumers. Each registrar enters into an identical Registrar Accreditation Agreement (“RAA”) with ICANN which…