United States Court Has Granted an Interim Relief for DCA Trust on .Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – March 5, 2016 – PRLog — A UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA – WESTERN DIVISION ruling has granted an Interim Relief for DotConnectAfrica by issuing a decision  [PDF Case No: CV 16-00862 RGK (JCx)] below that ICANN should hold off from delegating the .AFRICA top-level domain (TLD) for ZA Central Registry (ZACR).

The Court ruled (March 4th 2016):

“(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 gTLD.

This interim relief was granted after DCA Trust submitted its first Amended Notice on 26 February 2016.  Documents related to the litigation are available at ICANN site https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/dca-v-icann-2016-01…

On March 03, 2016, the ICANN Board has issued an emergency resolution (https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/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.”

On June 10th 2015, in a landmark decision, an Independent Review Process (IRP), at the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) ruled that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has violated its Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation following an expert determination of an IRP suit that was filed by DotConnectAfrica Trust in October 2013 to challenge an ICANN Board decision at the American Arbitration Association (AAA), New York, USA. The IRP Panel ruled that ICANN violated is 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 http://www.icann.org/en/news/irp/dca-v-icann

DotConnectAfrica Trust is represented in this legal proceeding by Brown, Neri & Smith LLP, 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1670 Los Angeles, CA 90025.