The Supreme Court rejected last Tuesday a petition filed by William Thomas and several other Web site owners challenging fees that are charged for registering and renewing Internet domain names.
Originally filed Oct. 17, 1997, the lawsuit alleged Network Solutions Inc., a Herndon, Va.-based Internet domain name registrar, and the National Science Foundation engaged in anti-competitive activities.
Starting in 1995, Network Solutions charged a registration fee of $100 and, after a two-year period, a $50 annual renewal fee for each domain name.
Network Solutions received 70 percent of all fees and the other 30 percent was designated for the National Science Foundation’s Intellectual Infrastructure Fund, used for Internet development and research.
The lawsuit sought restitution of all registration fees paid by all registrants and elimination of the 30-percent allotment for the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund, which actually was discontinued on April 1, 1998, said Network Solutions.
A victory for Network Solutions, the company announced it added more than 5 million new domain names last year, bringing its cumulative total of domain name registrations to 8.1 million at the end of 1999.
California, New York and Florida had the highest number of registrations, Network Solutions said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
