What’s in a name? Ask the cyber squatters!

The rampant growth of the internet has led to an explosive increase in cyber crime, which is bereft of statutory protection in India. Dramatic changes in the way business is done means that domain names have acquired great significance and when abused, they are worth millions of dollars.

Cyber squatting was defined by Delhi High Court in Manish Vij v Indra Chugh as “an act of obtaining fraudulent registration with intent to sell the domain name to the lawful owner of the name at a premium.” Cyber squatters frequently register domain names containing variations of popular trademarks and attempt to generate revenues using the goodwill of those trademarks. When the legitimate owner of the trademark realizes what has happened, the squatters try to sell the domain name to the registered trademark holder at a premium.

Combatting infringement

Proactive pursuit by trademark owners is imperative. To combat cyber squatting, trademark owners can issue “cease-and-desist” letters to infringer, invoking the dispute resolution provisions of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, conduct arbitration under its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or file a lawsuit.

Priti Suri is the proprietor of PSA.