The internet company brought an action against eAsia, a
Californian company with its main place of business in Taiwan,
claiming that the company’s registration of the domain names
picq.com and picq.net amounted to cybersquatting by infringing
AOL’s rights in the mark ICQ. ICQ (an abbreviation of “I seek you”)
allows anyone registered with the service to determine whether
another person registered with the service is currently on-line.
When two users realise they are on-line at the same time, they can
exchange e-mail and chat in real time.
AOL argued that eAsia’s registration of the domain names with
Network Solutions Inc. (NSI), based in Virginia, was sufficient to
give the state jurisdiction. However, the court said:
“...the act of registering a domain name
over the Internet, the payment of the small, annual maintenance
fee, and NSI’s obligations stemming from acceptance of the
registration, seem so modest in scope and nature that it is
difficult to view it as ‘transacting business’ in the registrar’s
state of residence.
“...the two domain name registration
agreements with NSI from which [the] claim arises are not
sufficient contacts with Virginia for purposes of personal
jurisdiction over eAsia in this case.”
