Prevent Domain Name Squatting - Secure Online Assets

Domain names are no less than trademarks. Book it with a company you can trust. Domain squatting is a nightmare for companies that ignore the value of their website for future business. As per recent media reports the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has got injunction from the Madras High Court, restraining owners of another similar sounding domain name booked through Rediff.com. The BCCI has sought damages of Rs. 10 lakh. But domain registration service providers like IndiaHosting.org, Net4India, Rediff cannot be blamed as they merely provide domain registration services, and have no control over the domains registered or allocated - that lies with the Central Registrar. The domain owner has to be held liable in such cases.

If we type-in a popular brand name on a search engine, we can find a host of websites, with IP and Domain addresses identical or similar to the popular brand name. Another decision awarded by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre where the domain name www.sbicards.com registered by a company called Domain Active Pty. Ltd. in Australia, should be transferred to SBI Cards, India.

We know that a large number of trademarks possessing the same name can exist if they deal with different products or are situated in different jurisdictions. But since a domain name has a global audience associating it with a particular brand name, there is no other option but for that domain name to be unique. The best option for a company is to book them before pirates can.

A 1998 landmark judgment of Marks and Spencer PLC v One In A Million Ltd set the trend in prosecution of domain pirates. Several domain name disputes have been decided by Indian courts, the first in the series being Yahoo! Inc. v. Akash Arora and Another in 1999. This was followed by other disputes including the recent case of Buffalo Networks Private Limited v Manish Jain in February 2005 regarding the domain attack on tehelka.com.

Indian courts have strongly condemned the practice of domain squatting and repeatedly restrained domain pirates from using the deceptive domain name or the word brand name or any other word comprising the same or deceptively similar to it on the internet. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre has been resolving domain name cases using online arbitration since 1999. The process is conducted by the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a non-profit organisation responsible for IP address space allocation, protocol assignment and DNS management situated in the U.S. Source: The Hindu