ICANN has responded to Donuts’ lawsuit over the .web top level domain name auction, saying that Donuts’ allegations are unfounded and that the auction should proceed as planned on Wednesday.
As reported yesterday, Donuts is trying to halt tomorrow’s auction because it believes another applicant, Nu Dot Co, is now in the control of another party. However, ICANN says that Nu Dot Co has confirmed it’s not under new ownership and that no changes have been made that would warrant a change to its application.
To be sure, the structure of Nu Dot Co’s application would allow for another company to fund its participation in the .web auction. That, and the fact that Nu Dot Co opted for an ICANN auction rather than a private auction in which the losers split the proceeds, seem to be what Donuts is upset about.
ICANN claims that Donuts’ emergency request is an emergency of its own making. It also calls out Donuts for not serving it with the lawsuit even three days after filing its emergency request.
ICANN summarizes its response by stating:
To put it simply, whether Nu Dotco changed ownership or management is a yes or no question. After a reasonable investigation, ICANN determined that the answer is no. Now, Nu Dotco’s managers have declared the same under penalty of perjury.