US Court halts .Africa delegation until a preliminary injunction case by applicant DotConnectAfrica is determined

on March 05, 2013, a UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA – WESTERN  DIVISION ruling has granted an Interim Relief for DotConnectAfrica by issuing a decision below that ICANN should hold off from delegating the .AFRICA top-level domain (TLD) for ZA Central Registry (ZACR). The Court ruled.

DCA Trust has taken ICANN to task over what has been said a renewed disagreement between DCA and ICANN on the implementation of the IRP ruling and the way ICANN processed its application further.

According to a press release on 5th March 2015, the determination reads

“(IN CHAMBERS) Plaintiff’s Ex Parte Application for TRO (DE [20]) by Judge R. Gary Klausner: The Court grants Plaintiff’s Ex Parte Application for TRO. Defendant is enjoined from issuing the.Africa gTLD until the Court decides Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction, scheduled for hearing on April 4, 2016. (ah)

Upon review of the parties’ arguments, the Court finds serious questions going to the merits. Plaintiff has demonstrated that once the gTLD is issued, it will be unable to obtain those rights elsewhere. Moreover, the injury it will suffer cannot be compensated through monetary damages. In opposition, Defendant states in conclusory fashion only that the African governments and the ICANN community will suffer prejudice if the delegation of the gTLD is delayed.”

This will allow the Court time to consider arguments from DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) and ICANN regarding the .AFRICA TLD.

DotConnectAfrica  represented in this legal proceeding by Brown, Neri & Smith LLP, had applied for an Ex Parte Application for TRO, to prevent ICANN from delegating the .Africa gTLD to ZACR until its case has been heard and determined.

On March 03, 2016, the ICANN Board has issued an emergency resolution  “to prepare to move forward toward delegation of .AFRICA with the party that has signed a Registry Agreement to operate .AFRICA”.  “….Resolved (2016.03.03.01), the Board authorizes the President and CEO, or his designee(s), to proceed with the delegation of .AFRICA to be operated by ZACR pursuant to the Registry Agreement that ZACR has entered with ICANN.”

The delegation for .Africa will still remain on hold until the case in court is closed.

In July 2015, DCA Trust won an Independent Review Process (IRP), against ICANN with the panel unanimously ruling that both the actions an inaction of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has violated its Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation. The IRP is the accountability review processes set out in the ICANN Bylaws.  Documents related to the IRP are available at Independent Review Process DCA Vs. ICANN and DCA Trust v. ICANN (.AFRICA)