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Cybersquatting is defined as an act of registering
a popular Domain name with the intent of selling it to its rightful
owner. The Domain name may be some Company Name or a TradeMark. Large
number of cases have already been decided on this subject in India and
abroad against Cyber-Squatters. Though Indian IT Act does not provide
for Domain Name disputes but the Trade Mark Law has been rightly
extended to cover such cases.
In India some popular cases on the subject have been:
1. Yahoo Inc. v. Akash Arora, (1999)
Registered Domain: 'Yahoo.com'
Disputed Domain: 'YahooIndia.com'
2. Rediff Communication Ltd. v. Cyberbooth, (2000)
Registered Domain: 'Rediff.com'
Disputed Domain: 'Radiff.com'
3. Info Edge (India) (P) Ltd. v. Shailesh Gupta, (2001)
Registered Domain: 'Naukri.com'
Disputed Domain: 'Naukari.com'
4. Satyam Inforway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions (P) Ltd., (2004)
Registered Domain: 'Sify.com'
Disputed Domain: 'Sifynet.com'
5. And many more.....
USA is always a step ahead in enacting legislations on Cyber Law
matters, whether it is Spamming or Cybersquatting. In 1999, USA passed
a specific law to deal with such matters called "Anti-Cyber Piracy
Act", which provides that a registrant of a Domain Name may be liable
to the owner of a trademark or others that may be affected by the "Bad
Faith" of the Domain Name registrant.
'Bad-Faith' has been defined under the Act to include: "the person's
offer to transfer, sell, or otherwise assign the domain name to the
mark owner or any third party for financial gain without having used,
or having an intent to use, the domain name in the bonafide offering of
any goods or services, or the person's prior conduct indicating a
pattern of such conduct"
Even the ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is based on
similar principle. The purpose of URDP has been to provide an
International field for resolving the disputes. It deals specifically
with cases of Cyber-Squatting, where it becomes necessary to prove:
1. Bad Faith registration.
2. Lack of legitimate interest.
US Case Laws on the subject:
1. Sporty's Farm LLC v. Sportsman's Market, Inc (2000)
Disputed Domain Name: 'sportys.com'
2. Wal-Mart Stores v. Walsucks and Walmarket Puerto Rico, (2000)
Disputed Domain Names: 'wal-martcanadasucks.com', 'wal-martcanadasucks.com', etc
3. Virtual Works, Inc. v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., et al.,(2001)
Disputed Domain Names: 'vw.net'
4. Mattel, Inc. v. Adventure Apparel (2001)
Disputed Domain Names: 'barbiesclothing.com'
5. And many more....
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