Domain name registrants who purchase a name in any of the present or pending generic (gTLD) top level domains should think twice before entrusting a domain name property interest to ICANN, even though ICANN levies a money tariff on each domain registration. ICANN has no policy language that indemnifies domain name registrants. ICANN language does not even contemplate the possibility of domain theft by an ICANN registrar. When a domain name is stolen from its registrant, especially when the domain has been ripped off by an ICANN-accredited registrar, ICANN will do nothing to protect the purchaser or punish the identifiable party responsible for the domain ripoff.

Arguably, ICANN has a duty as the regulatory apparatus that governs ICANN-accredited registrars to protect consumers. More than 100 million domain names have been registered to date in the dot-com TLD. To my knowledge, no one knows how many names have been stolen or how many registrants have been ignored to date by ICANN. Multiply a hundred million dot-com names by hundreds of pending gTLD applicants and a serious consumer problem obtains. Therefore, U.S.-based registries (and related registrars) ought to think about that because they can and will directly be sued for domain theft and conversion under U.S. law. In the present instance, ICANN did nothing to protect the registrant where any reasonable party will conclude that domain name theft occurred; the theft was brought to ICANN’s attention; more than adequate proof was provided as to what happened to the domain name as well as the identity of those who may have been responsible, whole or in part. ICANN dismissed the complaint. It ignored the evidence. It did nothing to hold anyone accountable. Judge for yourself. The related 31 pages of documents can be viewed here.