[thelist] Aimster must give up domain to AOL

Erik Mattheis gozz at gozz.com
Mon May 21 14:28:40 CDT 2001


>Aimster works *with* AIM. It's basically a plugin. It doesn't
>compete... nothing like that. In fact, I'd say it promotes it. You
>can't use Aimster without AIM. *shrug* It's almost like reaming all
>the "buddy icon" sites out there.
>
>>  Like if the founders last name or initials are AIM or there was any
>>   other good reason for the choice of the name, I would indeed think
>>  it  horrible, but from reading that article that doesn't seem to be
>>  the  case.
>
>Now that you know why it has "AIM" in the name, what do you think?

It's up to the trademark holder when they decide to enforce the use 
of their trademark. They might not see buddy icon sites as being 
detrimental to their business, whereas they might see Aimster as such.

I would be uncomfortable with someone telling me "If you're going to 
exercise your rights in situation A, then you must also exercise your 
rights is situations B-Z as well."

Don't get me wrong, I'm terrified that all these huge entities are 
merging and that the distinction between corporate America and the 
current executive administration of my country is blurry at best. But 
taking into consideration the reason a entity wanted to enforce their 
right to the exclusive use of their trademark goes against the 
fundamental concept of what a trademark is. So speculating on that 
reason doesn't make a lot of sense to me ...
-- 

- Erik Mattheis

"For best results, pronounce muh THEIGH ess."

(612) 827 3963




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