.Africa: Defendant ZACR Dismissed, DCA claims against ICANN will result in relief sought
The Judge presiding over the .Africa new gTLD Case No. 16-CV-00862 RGK (JCx), DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) & ZA Central Registry (ZACR), has granted ZACR’s Motion to Dismiss the Complaint (as to defendant ZACR only), concluding, along with other reasons (see embed below):
“… the Court finds Plaintiff’s first request against ZACR (i.e., that the Court declare the registry agreement null and void) unnecessary, as a favorable ruling on its (DCA Trust) claims against ICANN will result in the relief it seeks …” (emphasis added)
The court ruling means that DCA Trust can get its claims and relief from ICANN.
On 20th April 2016, ICANN withdrew its Motion to Dismiss [PDF] against DCA Trust’s First Amended Complaint filed on 26 February 2016. In its stipulation to the Court, ICANN moved to withdraw its dismissal citing the following reason:
“in view of the Court’s order on DCA’s motion for Preliminary Injunction, ICANN has elected to withdraw its Motion to Dismiss”.
DotConnectAfrica Trust sued ICANN in January 2016 for breach of contract, fraud and declaratory relief that ICANN should refrain from processing ZACR’s application. DCA has this far prevailed and won two injunctions (temporary, March 4th 2016 and preliminary, April 12, 2016 making sure the .Africa domain is not going to be delegated to ZACR until the Court hears its case.
The District Court has also set the case for a jury trial (estimated length: 10−12 days), starting February 28, 2017 at 09:00 AM (see scheduling conference proceedings embedded further below).
The DCA vs ICANN court filings are accessible at the following websites: ICANN and DCA Trust
