A U.S. judge has thrown out VeriSign Inc.'s antitrust claims against an Internet regulatory body, saying rivals did not unfairly influence a decision to block VeriSign's controversial search service.
While rivals certainly have a voice in the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, they bear no outsize influence in the international body's affairs, U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz said in a decision released late Thursday.
VeriSign said it would refile in a California state court.
ICANN oversees the system of domain names like "example.com" that steer traffic on the Internet.
VeriSign plays a prominent role in that system as it manages the millions of domain names that end in ".com" and ".net."
Mountain View, California-based VeriSign last September introduced a service called Site Finder that directed Internet users who mistype domain names to a search page, which contained advertisements.
Internet engineers said Site Finder could interfere with the stability of the Internet, and ICANN ordered VeriSign to temporarily shut the service down last October.
VeriSign sued ICANN in February, saying the Internet body had overstepped its authority and illegally restrained competition.
Matz said he saw no evidence of unfair trade. While ICANN's rivals participate in advisory groups, the ultimate decision to shut down Site Finder was made by ICANN's president and board of directors, he said.
"There is nothing conspiratorial about a 'bottom up' policy development process that considers or even solicits input from advisory groups," said Matz, a judge in the Central District of California.
The decision affirms that ICANN can work as a neutral regulator, an official with the regulatory body said.
"ICANN is not subject to capture by any commercial or other interest, including VeriSign," ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey said in a statement.
VeriSign said in a statement it would file a breach-of-contract suit against ICANN in California state court.
"We look forward to making our case in court so VeriSign and many other companies can get the clarity needed to run our businesses effectively," said Tom Galvin, VeriSign vice president of government relations.