Showing posts with label preliminary injunction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preliminary injunction. Show all posts

2016-12-16

New gTLD AFRICA Redux: DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN and ZACR


UPDATES in new gTLD .AFRICA litigation DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN and ZA Central Registry, pending in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Central District:

 UPDATE 3 Feb 2017: On Feb 3, 2016 ICANN updated its litigation page to indicate that on 4 January 2017, Court Order: Plaintiff's Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order is denied; Plaintiff's papers are deemed to be a new preliminary injunction motion; Parties are to submit supplemental briefs; and Preliminary Injunction hearing set for 31 January 2017 (which the Court later moved to 3 February 2017).  No further update as to the Feb 3rd hearing (as of Feb 4, 2017, 00:00 UTC).

UPDATE 8 January 2017: News Review: New gTLD .AFRICA Plaintiff Files for New TRO vs ICANN.

UPDATE 3 January 2017: California State Superior Court has denied DotConnectAfrica Trust's motion for preliminary injunction in an Order dated December 22 but not posted until Jan. 3, 2017 on the ICANN.org website, the Court indicating it will assign the case for a trial date at the case management conference January 23rd:


The above corrects and updates an earlier update based on a report from Law360.com:
UPDATE: ICANN not (corrected) enjoined from delegating .AFRICA by California State Superior Court Judge. According to Law360.com on Thursday, December 22, 2016, California Superior Court Judge Howard L. Halm issued a "written tentative ruling" indicating he would grant the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by African nonprofit DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA), blocking ICANN from delegating new gTLD (new generic top-level domain) .AFRICA  to ZA Central Registry (ZACR), ruling DCA’s claim that its application was unfairly rejected must be resolved first. Based on the update of January 3, above, the Law360.com report was erroneous.

New gTLD AFRICA: DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN and ZA Central Registry (ZACR), Case No. BC607494, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles – Central (trial court proceeding):

15 November 2016:

Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction:



9 December 2016:

ICANN's Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction:



9 December 2016

ZACR's Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction:



15 December 2016:
Plaintiff's Joint Reply to ICANN and ZACR's Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction:
How did the case get from U.S. District Court to State of California Superior Court?
For more:

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2016-08-24

New gTLD AFRICA Appeal: DCA Trust Answering Brief vs ICANN & ZACR

DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN UPDATE September 9, 2016: ICANN’s Reply Appellate Brief [PDF, 276 KB] and ZACR's Reply Appellate Brief [PDF, 195 KB].

UPDATE September 2, 2016: ZACR's Reply in Support of Motion to Intervene [PDF, 46 KB].

 UPDATE August 29, 2016: Plaintiff DotConnectAfrica Trust's Response to ZACR’s Motion to Intervene [PDF, 412 KB], embedded below (highlighting added):

UPDATE August 26, 2016: New gTLD applicant Dot Registry, LLC, has filed motion for leave to file amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in support of DCA Trust . Motion with attached Amicus Curiae Brief embedded below (highlighting added):

--original post below--

Map of Africa | DomainMondo.com
"ICANN expressly agreed to process gTLD applications fairly and transparently. Instead, ICANN colluded with ZACR to award the .Africa domain to the AUC [African Union Commission]. The district court properly granted DCA’s motion for a PI [preliminary injunction] and properly affirmed the PI on reconsideration. DCA respectfully requests this Court affirm those decisions."--Conclusion of Answering Brief filed by DocConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), infra (emphasis added)

DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), appellee, has filed its Appellate Answering Brief together with Supplemental Excerpts of the Record (both embedded below), in response to briefs filed by appellants ICANN and ZA Central Registry (ZACR). The issues in this consolidated interlocutory appeal by ICANN and ZACR to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, involve whether the U.S. District Court properly granted DCA Trust's motion for preliminary injunction "barring ICANN from delegating the rights to .AFRICA until this case is resolved." See District Court Order (pdf).

Case Status: ICANN's and ZACR's optional reply briefs are due September 9, 2016. Meanwhile the U.S. District Court has assigned the case to a 10-12 day jury trial beginning February 28, 2017. See Scheduling Order (pdf).

For more on this case, see the previous posts (and links therein), on Domain Mondo: ICANN and Dot AFRICA: Dismissed Party ZACR Files Notice of Appeal (includes ICANN brief); and .AFRICA: DCA Trust v ICANN, ZACR Motion to Intervene & Opening Brief.

Appellee DCA Trust's Answering Brief (pdf) embed below (highlighting added):


Supplemental Excerpts of the Record (pdf) embed below (highlighting added):


Most document filings in this case are available on the ICANN website at: DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN | ICANN.org. 
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2016-04-14

Will ICANN File An Interlocutory Appeal in DCA Trust gTLD AFRICA Case?

UPDATE June 16, 2016: New gTLD AFRICA Litigation: Defendant ZACR Dismissed as a Party.

 UPDATE ICANN filed an appeal on May 11, 2016, of the District Court's Order granting DCA Trust a Preliminary Injunction--Notice of Appeal embedded below:

UPDATE May 6, 2016: ICANN has withdrawn its Motion to Dismiss (pdf) "[i]n view of the Court's order on DCA's Motion for Preliminary Injunction" (which DCA won), and Defendant ZACR has now filed its own Motion to Dismiss (pdf) set for hearing on May 31, 2016, at 9:00 am in Los Angeles U.S. District Court.

UPDATE April 17: see News Review: dotAFRICA, Public Interest, Judge Holds ICANN Accountable.

[original post below]
"... Here, the public has an interest in the fair and transparent application process that grants gTLD rights. ICANN regulates the internet – a global system that dramatically impacts daily life in today’s society. The IRP Declaration recognizes that ICANN’s function is “special, unique, and publicly important” and ICANN itself “is the steward of a highly valuable and important international resources.” (Bekele Decl.¶ 23.110, Ex. 1, ECF No. 17.) .... the Court finds “serious questions” going toward DCA’s likelihood of success on the merits and a balance of hardships that tips sharply in DCA’s favor ... Additionally, the Court finds that both the likelihood of irreparable injury and the public interest favors the injunction. As such, the Court GRANTS a preliminary injunction barring ICANN from delegating the rights to .Africa until this case is resolved ..."--Judge Klausner, U.S. District Court, April 12, 2016, DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN & ZA Central Registry, infra, embedded below (emphasis added).
In a U.S. District Court ruling that may have far reaching impacts beyond just the Plaintiff's case, new gTLD .AFRICA applicant, DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), won its motion for preliminary injunction, as indicated above (read the full decision embedded below).

Will ICANN now file an interlocutory appeal from the Court's ruling?

One legal commentator on Standards of Appellate Review (pdf) has written:
"An appellate court reviews a preliminary injunction primarily for “abuse of discretion.” It will (and should) be predisposed to affirm the trial judge; getting a reversal will be difficult. Most trial courts will at least pay lip service to the usual factors for entering a preliminary injunction. This avoids reversal for simple legal error, and showing abuse in the weighing of those factors can be close to impossible.  The problem is more than just a likely loss, however. A hasty decision to take an interlocutory appeal that you then lose can hurt in the ultimate resolution of the merits. The fact that the standard of review is abuse of discretion reflects an appellate judgment that some decisions are best left to the trial court. Still, declaring the law is what appellate courts principally do; so, when they review the “possibility of success” criterion in injunction appeals, they often announce in controlling dicta the rules for later proceedings. See West Publishing Co. v. Mead Data Central, Inc. 799 F.2d 1219 (8th Cir. 1986)." (emphasis added)
In this case, ICANN and its counsel, Jones Day, may very well decide to file an interlocutory appeal. Obviously ICANN needs controlling legal precedent to prevent parties from seeking redress in the Courts after they have knowingly given up their "rights to sue" in new gTLD applications, registry agreements, etc. This case may also have a bearing on ICANN's suitability to serve as steward of the IANA functions and coordinate the global internet DNS, and may even affect the current IANA transition process now underway. In any event, this ruling is not dispositive of all issues in the case--ICANN has a pending motion to dismiss DCA Trust's case (pdf)--stay tuned.

 Complete copy of Court's Ruling* (yellow highlighting added):

 *DCA Trust issued a press release dated April 12, 2016, with link to the document embedded above. As of April 13, 2016, 2:50 pm PDT, ICANN still had not posted the decision on its webpage of all documents filed in this case, nor made any reference to the ruling on the ICANN website.

See also on Domain Mondo: New gTLD AFRICA: DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN, End of the Line?




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