AIMSTER TO APPEAL DOMAIN
NAME DECISION

Internet-based file sharing company Aimster said Tuesday it would challenge an arbitration panel's order to relinquish its Internet domain names to AOL (hitsdailydouble.com, 5/22).

The panel ruled that aimster.com and several other domain names registered by Aimster violate the trademark for AOL's instant messaging system, AIM.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to shut Aimster down," challenged Aimster founder Johnny Deep.

The panel said Aimster's domain names—which also include aimstertv.com and a1mster.com—were intentionally chosen for their similarity to AIM.

As part of the ruling, Aimster was told to transfer all its domain names to AOL Time Warner. The company had already turned over two other domain names it had registered—Icqster.com and Ic2ster.com, which reportedly cashed in on the AOL-owned ICQ instant messenger service.

Aimster was told it could legally keep the rights to roytrakin.com, as the profile of that site’s regular visitors scares the hell out of those in the corporate world.