The California law firm of Kabateck, Brown, and Kellner has filed a class action suit against Network Solutions and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), alleging the company has unfairly profited by temporarily registering domains as soon as someone conducts a search for their availability via the company’s Web site.
The Network Solutions practice—which the company rolled out with any explanation, but has since attempted to clarify on its Web site—puts a domain name “on reserve” as soon as a customer or potential customer searches for a .com domain for possible registration on the Network Solutions site. If the domain doesn’t exist, Network Solutions places a hold on it, meaning that if even a few seconds later the same user goes to another domain registrar and attempts to register the domain, it won’t be available.
