At present, many domain name registrars offer a service where consumers pay a fee to reserve a domain name that is already registered. If and when that registration is not renewed, the registrar will attempt to get it on the consumer's behalf.
But no guarantee is given, and the end result is that consumers often pay several registrars to back-order the same name. This secondary domain name market is very competitive, and prices are relatively low.
Last year VeriSign, the company that controls the database of all .com and .net domain name registrations, proposed a unified system known as the Wait Listing Service (WLS). This would require that all registrars apply for expiring domain names through VeriSign, on a first come, first served basis. There would still be no guarantee that the domain would be available for re-registration.
The scheme had to be approved by ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – before it could go ahead, and VeriSign has been frustrated by the delays involved in gaining that approval. Only last month VeriSign filed suit against ICANN, alleging that the organisation has failed to follow a clear, consistent and uniform process.
The suit complains that ICANN has improperly attempted to become the de facto regulator of the domain name system and in doing so stifled the introduction of new services that benefit internet users and promote the growth of the internet.
But the WLS scheme has been heavily criticised by domain name registrars and resellers, who argue that the proposal would increase costs and kill their secondary domain name business model.
In July last year a group of registrars and resellers, calling themselves the Domain Justice Coalition, sought a temporary restraining order against ICANN, challenging its failure to comply with its own internal decision-making process requirements when considering implementation of the WLS in the face of opposition from domain name registrars, resellers and consumers.
The Court refused, and the case is due to go to trial later this year.
Another group of eight registrars filed suit against both VeriSign and ICANN last month, arguing that if the WLS were implemented it would eliminate competition by putting VeriSign in command of redistributing expired domain names and change the existing process from a fee for results – where a customer pays only if the domain is secured – to annual fees that are no more "than a bet against the house."
The scheme has still to be approved by the US Department of Commerce.