Verisign, administrator of the largest and oldest gTLD .COM, filed a lawsuit against registry of a new gTLD .XYZ and it’s CEO Daniel Negari. For instance, they are accused of false advertising, that disorients users and detriment the interests of Verisign. The lawsuit was filed way back in December last year, however it became public only now.
The reason for Verisign dissatisfaction was a commercial of .XYZ and several interviews with Daniel Negari. He repeatedly states that it is impossible to register a name that meets all interests of the user in the «overpopulated» .COM domain zone, and that .XYZ domain is the best alternative. According to Verisign representatives, these statements is not true. Verisign also reminds that the leading position of .XYZ among all new gTLDs (around 785 thousand registrations at the moment) was reached in no small measure due to giveaways of domain names. Lawyers at Verisign believe that this also misleads the consumer, creating a false impression of real scale and demand of the .XYZ domain zone.
The reaction of the domain community on this news can be called controversial. On the one hand, observers recognize the validity of Verisign’s claims, however are not convinced that the lawsuit will be successful in court. On the other hand, according to many of them, Verisign’s actions resemble scorched earth tactic a lot and are aimed at suppressing any threat to .COM hegemony from new gTLDs.
