Cyber Squatting-Group2-LAB.pptx

8/14/2019 Cyber Squatting-Group2-LAB.pptx

1/14

Cybersquatting

Abhinav Vyas 13P182

Aditi Rathi 13P187

Archit Arora 13P198Rajesh A Nair 13P227

Sahil Vij 13P233

Sudeep Khare 13P211


2/14

Cybersquatting

Best summarized in Manish Vij v. Indra Chugh, AIR 2002 Del 243,

the court held that an act of obtaining fraudulent registrationwith an intent to sell the domain name to the lawful owner of the

name at a premium


3/14

Categories of Cybersquatting

Typo squatting : Typo squatters rely on the fact that Internet users will

make typographical errors when entering domain names into their webbrowsers.

The omission of the dot in the domain name: wwwexample.com

A common misspelling of the intended site: exemple.comA different top-level domain: example.org

Identity theft : If the owner of a domain name doesntre-registerthe

name with an internet registrar prior to the domainsexpiration date,

then the domain name can be purchased by anybody else after it

expires. This strategy is one of a family of identity theft schemes

including renewal snatching, extension exaggeration and alert

angling.


4/14

Categories of Cybersquatting

Name Jacking

Accomplished by purchasing an individuals name as a top-level

domain name, for example James Jones = JamesJones.com.

Allows the purchaser to capitalize on any searches done for thatname

Use of non-trademarked names and having a purpose other than

selling the domain name back to an individual, allows them to

circumvent the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act

(ACPA) laws

Provides low-cost web traffic to the name-jacked website


5/14

Domain Names

A domain name is the human-friendly address of a computer

whereas an IP number is the unique underlying numeric address,such as 192.91.247.53.

Domain name system is administered by the Internet Corporation

for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

(ICANN) ; an internationally organized, non-profit corporation

that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space

allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and

country code(ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name systemmanagement, and root server system management functions.


6/14

United States of America

A victim of cyber squatting in the United States has two options:

a. Sue under the provisions of the Anti cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act

(ACPA)

b. Use an international arbitration system created by the Internet Corporation of

Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Legal Scenario

ICANN implemented dispute resolution mechanism as Uniform Domain Name

Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999, to resolve more than 20,000 disputes

over the rights to domain names.

The UDRP is designed to solve disputes which usually arise when registrant has

registered a domain name identical or confusingly similar to the trademark with no

rights or legitimate interests in the name and has registered and used the domain

name in bad faith.


7/14

The UDRP proceedings are conducted by the ICANN approved service providers.

Each provider follows the UDRP as well as its own supplemental rules.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

National Arbitration Forum (NAF)

Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNCRC)

Czech Arbitration Court (CAC)

Rule 4 (a) mentions applicable disputes in the events wherein:

1. The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or

service mark in which the complainant has rights;

2. There are no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name;

3. The domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith

Rule 4 (b) explains the evidence of registration and Bad Faith use

URDP Rules

Legal Scenario


8/14

Legal Scenario in India

Concept of a domain name is new to Indian legal thinking

Indias top level domain is .inINRegistryis the official .in registry. INRegisty is operated under the

authority of NIXI (National Internet eXchange of India)

NIXIis a non-profitable company registered under section 25 of the

Indian Companies Act

The disputes relating to .in domain name are resolved in accordance with

the .INDispute Resolution Policy (INDRP) andtheitsRules of Procedure

Section 2(z) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, defines trademarks as marks

capable of being represented graphically, distinguishing goods or services

of one person from those of others. Mark is defined to include a nameand any abbreviation thereof. The Act has a wide definition for services

extending the ambit in relation to business of any commercial or industrial

activity. The short point which the Court had to decide is whether a

domain name has the characteristics of a trade or service which is

available to potential users of the internet.


9/14

Though domain names are not defined under any Indian law or are

covered under any special enactment, the Courts in India have applied

Trade Marks Act, 1999 to such cases.

Reliefs available :

1. Remedy of infringement2. Remedy of passing off

Remedy of Infringement: Trade mark Act permits

owner of the trade mark to avail the remedy of

infringement only when the trade mark is registered.

Remedy of Passing off: No registration of the trade

mark is required in case the owner intends to avail

the relief under passing off.

Role of Judiciary


10/14

#Yahoo! Inc. Vs Akash Arora

Judgment given by Dr. M.K. Sharma

Plantiff

Yahoo.com had been registered by Yahoo Inc with Network Solution Inc since

1995 and offers a whole range of web based services

The trade mark Yahoo had been registered or was close to being registered in

69 countries.

Yahoo Inc had not registered its domain name in India.

Defendant

Akash Arora started to offer web-based services similar to those offered by

Yahoo.com under the name of Yahoo India.

Whether the act of Akash Arora in registering the domain name Yahoo

India, to offer services similar to those offered by Yahoo Inc, is an

infringement of the trade mark of Yahoo Inc and amounts to passing-

off under the relevant sections of the Trademark and Merchandise

Act?


11/14

The suit has been instituted by the plaintiff against the defendants seeking for a

decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their partners,

servants and agents from operating any business and/or selling, offering for

sale, advertisingand in any manner dealing in any services or goods on theInternet or otherwise under the trademark/domain name 'Yahooindia.Com' or

any other mark/domain name which is identical with or deceptively similar to

the plaintiff's trademark 'Yahoo!' and also for rendition of accounts and

damages.

In Defense : One of the submissions was that the domain name 'Yahoo!' ofthe plaintiff is not used in relations to goods, but, in relations to services and

since services are not included within the ambit of section under Sections

27(2) and 29 of the Trade Mark Merchandise Act and, therefore, the plaintiff

cannot plead for action of passing off in relation to such services.

In support of his submission, the learned counsel drew my attention to theprovisions ofSection 2(5), Sections 27, 29 and Section 30 of the Act and

contended that only goods are recognized for the purpose of preferring an

action for infringement or passing off.


12/14

The Court observed, It was an effort to trade on the fame of yahoos

trademark. A domain name registrant does not obtain any legal right to usethat particular domain name simply because he has registered the domain

name, he could still be liable for trademark infringement.

#Yahoo! Inc. Vs Akash Arora

The Court granted the injunction upon consideration for the relevant law

namely, Section 32 of the Lanham Act.

NOTE :

Mr. Kapil Sibbal, Senior Advocate with Mr. Praveen Anand and Ms BinnyKalra,

Advocates for the Plaintiff.

Mr. Harish Malhotra with Mr. Ashwini Kumar Sood, Advocates for the

Defend-ants


13/14

Suggestions

New legislation

IndependentAdjudicatory Body

Revamping INDRP

Concerted effort by registrars to address and curb it at the

registration level itself by looking into the claim of the person and

doing some back ground check


14/14

Thank you

Cyber Squatting-Group2-LAB.pptx

Documents