Ronald L. Johnston

There was much at stake during the six years of litigation involving a closely watched case that centered on a key component of the Internet - its .com and .net registries.

The case arose out of the successful negotiation of key agreements used internationally to govern the domain name system, in which Johnston represented VeriSign Inc. Coalition for ICANN Transparency Inc. v. VeriSign Inc., 5:05-CV-04826 (RMW) HRL (N.D. Cal.).

A group of domain name registrars claimed that VeriSign Inc., which controls the dot-com and dot-net suffixes, had coerced the Internet's governing body - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - into allowing it to monopolize the market.

The matter also involved hearings before House and Senate committees, oversight bodies and a number of separate litigation and arbitration proceedings, with Johnston successfully serving as lead counsel.

The case raised fundamental questions of first impression regarding international Internet governance.

Last year, plaintiff CFIT dismissed the case with prejudice.

A lot of new ground was broken with this case, Johnston said, resulting in several opinions in the district court and appellate court.

"ICANN is unique in American history as a form of oversight body," he observed. "Because ICANN is a novel structure for oversight, the courts had to grapple with how to treat a novel structure under antitrust laws. Are its contracts more like ordinary contracts or like government contracts, for example?"

Since the '70s, Johnston said he's continually dealt with emerging technology and novel issues of how the law should apply to it.

"Because technology moves fast, it's hard for the legislative process to decide what the legal rules should be," he said. "As a result, the courts are doing this constantly."

- PAT BRODERICK

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