IP addresses are now assets

John Curran jcurran at arin.net
Fri Dec 2 05:20:39 UTC 2011


Wayne - 

Your subject line (IP addresses are now assets) could mislead folks, 
so I'd advise waiting to review the actual sale order once approved by
the court before making summary conclusions.  

ARIN holds that IP address space is not property but is managed as a 
public resource.  Address holders may have certain rights (such as the 
right to be the registrant of the address block, the right to transfer the 
registration, etc.) but these rights intersect with additional rights to the 
same address blocks which are held by the community (such as the right
of visibility to the public portion of registrations).  The registry policies 
(set by the community via open and transparent processes) govern the 
intersection and application of these rights.

For this reason, ARIN works with parties transferring their rights in IP 
address space to make sure that the documents reflect that sales of
rights are subject to the transfer policies in the region, including in this 
particular case.  A party may transfer their rights to IP addresses, and
such rights may have value to an estate, but this does not make the 
IP addresses "property" per se.

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN







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