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.”