The laws relating to Intellectual Property Rights include Trade Mark, Copyright, Patent and Trade Secrets which are valuable assets of any Company. The rise in the usage of internet has created new ways and technique to infringe the Intellectual Property Rights, prominent being the Cybersquatting….

 What is Cybersquatting?

Cybersquatting occurs when a person other than owner of a well-known Company registers that particular Trademark as an Internet Domain Name and then attempts to profit from it either by ransoming the Domain Name back to the Trademark owner or by using the Domain Name to divert business from the Trademark owner. In other word we can say that an unauthorized registration and use of Internet Domain names that are identical or similar to Trademarks, Service marks, Company names or Personal names.

 

In the case of Manish Vij V/s Indra Chug, The High court of Delhi define Cybersqatting as “An act of obtaining fraudulent registration with the intent to sell a Domain name to the law full owner of the name a premium” Cybersquatting is prevalent form of Domain dispute worldwide, where individuals register Domain names containing existing trademark with the intent to profit by selling them back to the rightful owners the unethical practice forces business to buy their own Domain names at High costs, Impacting their online practices.

 


Dell the computer giant Company took legal action against three websites in year 2007 accusing them of unlawfully registering and profiting from 1100 Domain Names that are confusing and similar to Dell’s Own Trademark.

 



Cyber Squatters compel the Trademark owners to buy the website. Cyber Squatters may use top level Domain Names e.g. “Domino’s Pizza” if it had not been registered by the Trademark owner by attempting to sell Domino’s Pizza Domain having no intent to legitimately use the website. Obviously, they have a bad intent of Hi-jacking traffic for financial profits delivering malware payloads or stealing Intellectual Property.

 


The scams relating to the Cybersquatting are on the rise with 5516 new cases filled in 2022, where there is an increase of 10% from the year 2021, and 7% increase from 2022 to 2023.

 

Types of Cyber Squatting



Reverse Cyber Squatting-

 





In this a person falsely claims a Trademark as there owns and falsely accuses the original Domain owner of Cybersquatting.


Typo Squatting-

Domains are bought with typological errors in the name of well-known brands e.g. Facebok.com. Making a typing error while entering a domain is a common mistake the intent is always malicious as the act is to divert the target audience whenever they misspelled domain name.


They make unleash malware, phishing or another attack payload on any unfortunate users who makes the typo error. In 2001 Movie star Nicole Kidman took action against the website called NicholeKidman.com, a typo squatting domain that took advantage of the alternative spelling of the actresses’ first name. The dispute was bought before WIPO arbitration and mediation center where it was decided that the domain was used in bad faith and should be transferred to Nicole Kidman ownership.




Name- Jacking/ Domain Hijacking- 

Its means impersonating a well known name of a celebrity in cyber space. It includes creating fake websites, social media accounts with the celebrity name.

 



Identity Theft-


The website of the already existing brand is copied with the intention of confusing the target consumer.

 



Detecting Domain Abuse


          This is accomplished via a digital risk protection tool or services. These can detect creation of lookalike domains via specific algorithms. Newly registered domains are compared and alerts will be generated if they matched too close to the user domain.

The Companies suffer because of identity theft, data loss, brand image get tarnished and financial losses.

 

Legislation/ Litigation

Indian scenario:

There are no specific laws regarding Cyberquatting, however domains names are considered trademarks under the Trade Marks Act 1999, any person who uses identical or similar domain name will be held liable for trademark infringement U/s 29 of Trademark Act.



U.S Scenario:

ACPA – Anti Cyber Squatting Consumer Protection Act. Gives the owner of a registered Trademark the right to file suit for alleged Cybersquatting in the Federal court which ultimately results in the domain name being transferred in the name of registered owner.

 

Arbitration

ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers adopted UDNDRP- Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy- Disputes are resolved through arbitration. Remedies are available only limited to cancelation or transfer of the alleged dispute domain name and do not provide any monetary compensation.

INDRP- is the designated authority in India i.e.. .INDomain name dispute resolution policy. It applies to any or all disputes in connection with domains registered with .in or .Bharat available in all India languages.

 

Steps to prevent: Cybersquatting is growing problem in the digital world that can adversely impact business, Infringement of Domain not only hurt one’s brand, trust and consumer experience but also leads to extortion of its own kind. With the increasingly cyber thread companies need to invest in leading Cyber Security solutions to protect their Brand, Data and System.

Stringent laws- Certain guidelines shall be  issued which should be mandatory before  issuing any domain name.

Trademark Registration on domain names-  Businesses should be encouraged to register their domain as Trademark also.

Awareness regarding UNDRP- It is a cost-effective method so more emphasis should be provided on spreading awareness regarding such procedures.


SUI GENERIS LAWS- It does not only effects business owner but also consumers at large. Therefore, it has become important to make specific laws regarding Cybersquatting along with the consequences.

There is no specific law in India to protect the Domain name disputes most of the cases of cybersquatting are dealt under Trademarks Act, 1999.


In a Notable case of Yahoo!, Inc. V/s Aakash Arora & Anr. Yahoo! Inc. Delhi High Court restrained the defendants from using such domains names and copying Yahoo!’s contents. The case revolve around ‘Yahooindia.com’, A Domain name created by the defendant closely resemblance Yahoo!’s Trademark Yahoo!. This was the first case wherein the courts in India ruled that a registered Domain name is similar to a Trademark, giving it the same protection.

    

 There is an urgent requirement of legislation in India to combat thread o cybersquatting as we cannot completely depend on our Trademark Laws.

- MAMTA SINGH SHUKLA
(ADVOCATE DELHI HIGH COURT)
MOBILE - 9560044035
Email id - adv.mamtasinghshukla@gmail.com

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