VeriSign settles lawsuit filed by rival registrar

OCTOBER 08, 2002

Internet domain name registrar Go Daddy Software Inc. today announced that it has settled a false advertising lawsuit against much larger rival VeriSign Inc., one of several similar cases that VeriSign was hit with earlier this year. The lawsuit, filed in June, charged that Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign sent deceptive domain name renewal notices to some of Go Daddy's customers, misleading them into transferring the registration of their domain names to VeriSign's service. 

The notices allegedly encouraged the customers to renew their domain names with VeriSign or risk losing them. But Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Go Daddy claimed that the "reply by" dates on the notices didn't correlate with any actual registration expiration dates. 

A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix ordered VeriSign to stop sending the notices shortly after the suit was filed, but Go Daddy said at the time that it was proceeding with the case in an attempt to collect damages from VeriSign. 

The financial terms of the settlement aren't being disclosed, according to Christine Jones, Go Daddy's general counsel. Jones said that as part of the deal, customers who switched to VeriSign after receiving notices from that company will be given the option of transferring their registrations back to Go Daddy at no cost. But she would not say which company will pick up the transfer costs. 

More details at: http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,74976,00.html

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