I don't see what you are losing by giving up the domain. You are not going to be able to keep it. They can already prove your intent was to violate their trademark. I am sure they have records of all your previous site pages before you dumped it and parked it. You don't have anything at stake here. Give them the domain for the $25.00 and take the $25.00 and buy a new domain name and make a new site. It is that simple. I have no idea what you are thinking about. You clearly don't have the resources or understanding to even attempt to keep the name, and you also have no motivation to keep it. It seems to me you are sitting around hoping someone dumps a technicality in your lap so you can squirrel away with the domain and make millions. Even if such a technicality existed, and it doesn't, you would still be able to make as much money with a domain name that did not infringe on AOL's trademark as you are with this one. Just give it up and focus your energy on something productive. This is an entirely counterproductive exercise on your part.
I can hardly believe how many people have advised you in this thread to hang on to this domain. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose by fighting AOL on this one. It's not even as though it's a variation of AOL that has some other possible meaning, it's unambiguous. If you don't trust the very sensible members here who are telling you to take the $25 offered and surrender the domain, go and see a trademark lawyer who will tell you exactly the same thing.
Harming their service has nothing to do with it, if you're infringing on their trademark then AOL have a very strong case to take the domain off you.
Just wanted to update you people about the issue. AOL were too helpful and finally I have transfered the domain to them and they have paid me a good some ($$) for the taking the domain. Everything took place too good and I am glad I am free of tension anymore. Thanks to all who advised me as how I should proceed with the issue and things just went too awesome and good for me. Thanks all!!! DP Rocks Cheers, Dreamchaser
Nice to see you got it worked out, and even for more than their original offer. I'm glad you were smart enough not to deal with them in court Next time, don't try to make profit off someone else's trademark - It's just silly and it doesn't, and shouldn't work. Good luck
Now watch them go make $$$,$$$ a year off it Jk good call, don't fight big business, unless it's the MPAA, go shawn!
Glad it worked out for you. Here's what I don't understand - if they paid Latham & Watkins umpteen gazillion dollars back in 1998 to get the domain back from a porn network, how did it end up back in the registry where you could register it for ten bucks or so? Was AOL too cheap to pay the domain renewal fees? Were they too stupid to put a snapback on it to grab it when it came open? It makes no sense ot me.
Damn.. only XXX ?? I think they wouldve offered you XXXX if you hadnt agreed. Its better to pay XXXX than get into legalities which cost way more than that.
I Hate AOL...they freakin spam my PC all the time with they're loser products....dont get into a legal war with them...they'll hire the biggest lawyers they're sticky hands will come across.. -peace -five539 -good job on the $$$
I wouldn't have handed it over. Since the site is gone now I can't look at it to see what was on it, but if it had nothing to do with AOL, I would have told them to GTH. Trademark is more than the simple use of letters. It also includes the way the letters look, their color, their shape, and the products that they are used on. They can't restrict usage of the letters a, o, and l in succession to one another. If your domain name was uncut.aol.com or aol.uncut.com then they would have had a better case.
Now take that money and register a couple hundred $2 aol .info domains and start the process all over again.
Funny thread.... How many people own sites with domains that contain the trademark MYSPACE? 50,000? 100,000? Yea.. probably more. Myspace, and Newscorp + Fox Media has not been able to do anything to them.