ICANN and VeriSign Announce End to Long-Standing Dispute http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-24 oct05.htm)

24 October 2005

Press Release

ICANN today announced that it has reached an proposed agreement to end all pending litigation over its long-standing dispute with VeriSign. The proposed agreement documents are being posted for public comment and are subject to final approval of the ICANN Board. This settlement will clear the way for a new and productive public/private partnership in coordinating technical management of the Internet's domain name system."

"Commenting on the proposed agreement, Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN said: "This proposed agreement settles many of the long-standing points of tension between ICANN and VeriSign. The settlement opens the way for a constructive and productive relationship between ICANN and VeriSign that will benefit the global Internet community, and further illustrates the benefits of a multi-stakeholder approach."

The proposed agreements between ICANN and VeriSign provide for the settlement of all existing disputes between ICANN and VeriSign, coordination of planning where appropriate, and commitment to binding international arbitration to prevent any future disagreements from resulting in costly and disruptive litigation.

Importantly, the creation of a clearly defined process for the introduction of new registry services is incorporated in a new .COM Registry Agreement. The agreement also extends the term of VeriSign's management of the world's oldest public registry .COM, and sets out better ways for ICANN and VeriSign to work together to promote stability and innovation of the Top Level Domain."