AOL and HiChina Fight over Domain Name

August 3, 2004

AOL and HiChina Fight over Domain Name
A heated international case on domain name was finally settled yesterday, as America Online Inc (AOL) was defeated in a lawsuit with HiChina Web Solutions Ltd over the “icq.com.cn” domain name.

As reported, in June this year America Online, alleging that “”ICQ” is its internationally renowned trademark name, and HiChina has registered a domain name, which is identical and easily mixed with AOL’s registered trademark and special name, thus acting in bad faith” etc, appealed before the Domain Name Dispute Settlement Center of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) to win back possession of “icq.com.cn”.

In response, HiChina stated that “ICQ” is not a famous Chinese trademark, and, by the date of its domestic registration on September 23, 1998, it was not a famous name either in China or in other countries of the world. Furthermore, “com.cn” has been designated as a country code for Chinese domains, and “icq.com.cn” is thereby a Chinese domain. The plaintiff AOL is an American company, without any Chinese entity or authorized business activity in the country. Its possession of a Chinese domain name will cause direct losses to legitimate Chinese domain resources.

According to experts from the Domain Dispute Settlement Center of CIETAC, the plaintiff America Online was unable to offer sufficient evidence to prove its title to civil rights on the “ICQ” name at the time of registration of the disputed domain. Therefore, its “icq.com.cn” possession transfer appeal was rejected.

As reported, in 2000 AOL took advantage of the American location of the international domain dispute settlement jurisdiction court to forcefully deprive Shenzhen Tencent and Shanghai Maya Online of their property rights to the international domains “oicq.com” and “cnnews.com”. Unable to defeat American superiority of “originator of the World Wide Web”, these two Chinese enterprises suffered heavy losses.

With this case HiChina hopes to widely warn domestic enterprises on paying more attention to “.cn” registered domain names protection. Efforts should be taken to avoid superiority perils and defend the economic interests of the national network.