Register.com asks VeriSign to stop SiteFinder

September 29th, 2003
By Anthony Cicero

To VeriSign's Chief Litigation Counsel from Register.com

We represent Register.com, Inc., a leading domain registrar and a direct competitor of your subsidiary Network Solutions, Inc. We are writing this letter to protest VeriSign's recently established SiteFinder service and to call upon VeriSign to immediately cease operations of the same. For the reasons set forth below, the SiteFinder service constitutes an abuse of VeriSign's power as the .com and .net registry, deceives the Internet community, confuses domain name registrants, and interferes with the business relations between Register.com and its registrants by means of deceptive acts and practices.

At the outset, VeriSign has deceived the Internet community with respect to its SiteFinder service by representing that the same only effects entries based on misspellings and typographical errors when, in fact, it targets domain names that are registered to current registrants. As VeriSign is well aware, many registrars, including Register.com have long-established business practices of disabling the DNS for recently-expired domain names, as a means of notifying the customers of their need to renew their registrations. Contrary to its public claims, VeriSign's SiteFinder service interferes with these active registrations, hijacking their DNS and pointing them to a monetized search engine.

More than simply deceiving the public, SiteFinder also interferes with the Register.com's business and customer relationships. Register.com consciously and deliberately disables the DNS for registrations in the domain name grace period (for which Register.com has paid VeriSign the $6 renewal fee), causing them not to resolve on the Internet, as a means of communicating the expiration and impending the deletion of such domain names to its customers. Indeed, Register.com has elected to have such names not resolve in lieu of pointing the DNS to search engines or other Web sites of Register.com's choice in order to engender the goodwill and trust of its customers.

Certain other names being redirected by VeriSign to the SiteFinder website are also active registrations for which the registry fee has been paid. For example, names for which customers have chosen to disable the DNS and the registrations have been seized by Register.com. and for which it has disabled the DNS, all now point to SiteFinder.

Using and abusing its power as the exclusive .com and .net registry, VeriSign has usurped Register.com, and now causes expired domain names to point to a proprietary VeriSign website, under circumstances where the registrant can reasonably believe that such redirection has been accomplished by Regiser.com, pursuant to Register.com's relationship with the registrant, when in fact such misdirection has been caused entirely by VeriSign without the knowledge or authorizations of Register.com or the registrant. These confused an deceived registrants may well disapprove of such redirection for competitive reasons (for example, a registrant in the travel service business may resent misdirection of its traffic to a website whcih advertises competing travel services) or for non-competitive reasons (registrants who disapprove of online gambling may not approve of their traffic being directed to the VeriSign website which links to numerous gambling websites) or in the some other ways, all of which can act to the serious damage and detriment to Register.com.

VeriSign's activities in operating its SiteFinder search service thus constitute the use in commerce of false designations of origin and false descriptions and representations as well as false advertising in violation of 15 U.S.C. S 1125(a), interference with Register.com's business relations with its registrants, unfair competition, deceptive acts and practices in violation of New York General Business Law Section 349, and potentially other violations of federal and state law.

In view of all of the foregoing, Register.com calls upon VeriSign to immediately discontinue its SiteFinder service, failing which Register.com will take such action as it believes appropriate under the circumstances to protect its valuable legal rights, its business relations with its registrants, and the rights of its registrants and consumers. We await your immediate response.

Nothing contained herein shall be deemed to constitute a waiver of any of Register.com's rights or remedies, all of which are specifically reserved.

Very truly yours,

Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein LLP

Anthony F. Lo Cicero

[Register.com's Lawyers, RCOM]