In what appears from news reports to be a spectacularly wrong-headed UDRP decision (the actual decision isn't online yet and one can never be absolutely sure until reading the decision), a majority of a three-person NAF panel awarded www.aimster.com to AOL. Not only did the panel majority decide that the "aim" part of "Aimster" infringed AOL's trademark rights (the "AIM" in Aimster being confusingly similar to "AOL Instant Messenger", of course) but it held 2-1 that the Aimster name was registered and used in bad faith. I was under the impression, however, that company was, somewhat notoriously, named after the founder's teen-age daughter, Aimee, who is featured prominently on the site... The dissenting arbitrator was G. Gervaise Davis III who has been active in DNS matters since the gTLD-MoU days. Aimster is reportedly planning to contest this decision in court.

Anonymous writes to tell us about instructions for winning at The 6.30am Domain Name Goldrush Part I and Part II.

(Another?) Anonymous notes that Vint Cerf to Chair INET 2001 Panel on Interplanetary Internet

ZDNet UK reports that it asked WIPO's number two, Assistant Director General Francis Gurry, what he thought of registrars who sell domain names in TLDs not sanctioned by ICANN. His response bemoans the "tradition on the Internet for anarchy and pathological independence."

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