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Domain names: meaning, registration, cybersquatting and typosquatting

Law of Intellectual Property and Information Technology · Unit II · Topic 3 of 12 · 6 min read

What a domain name is and how the DNS, ICANN, registries and registrars allot it, the conflict between a unique global address and territorial trade marks, the forms of abuse, and the Indian and US case law from Yahoo! and Satyam Infoway to Panavision and the ACPA.

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On this page
  1. 1. Meaning of a domain name
  2. 2. Is a domain name a trade mark?
  3. 3. Registration
  4. 4. Forms of domain name abuse
  5. 5. The US statute
  6. 6. Remedies in Indian courts
  7. How this is examined
Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The examinable core. A domain name began as a technical address and became a business identifier. Indian courts have protected it through passing off, and the Supreme Court in Satyam Infoway (2004) held that a domain name has all the characteristics of a trade mark. India has no domain name statute; the US has the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 1999. The administrative routes (UDRP and INDRP) are dealt with in Unit V.

1. Meaning of a domain name

Every computer on the internet has a numeric IP address. The Domain Name System maps easy-to-remember names to those numbers. A name such as www.example.co.in is read from the right:

The essential technical fact is uniqueness: only one person in the world can hold a given name in a given TLD. Trade marks are the opposite: territorial and limited to classes of goods and services, so many traders can lawfully own the same word in different countries or for different goods. This mismatch causes most domain name disputes.

2. Is a domain name a trade mark?

Early commentators said a domain name is only an address, like a telephone number. Indian courts rejected that.

3. Registration

The system is run by private ordering under ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, established 1998):

  1. Registry operators maintain the database for a TLD (for .com, Verisign; for .in, the National Internet Exchange of India, NIXI, which operates the .IN Registry).
  2. Registrars, accredited by ICANN or by the registry, sell names to the public.
  3. Registrants apply, pay and sign a registration agreement. That agreement incorporates the dispute policy (UDRP for gTLDs; INDRP for .in), which is how a private policy binds every registrant worldwide.

Allotment is on a first come, first served basis. The registrar does not examine whether the name conflicts with a trade mark. The registrant warrants that it does not infringe third party rights. Registrant contact data (WHOIS) used to be public; since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2018) much of it is redacted, which makes identifying cybersquatters harder. The new gTLD programme added a Trademark Clearinghouse and sunrise periods so that mark owners can register first, and the Uniform Rapid Suspension procedure for clear cases.

4. Forms of domain name abuse

PracticeWhat happens
CybersquattingRegistering a name identical to another’s mark to sell it to the owner, block the owner or divert traffic
TyposquattingRegistering a misspelling or variant (extra letter, swapped letters, missing dot) to catch mistyped traffic, often for ads or phishing
WarehousingHolding many names for resale without use
Reverse domain name hijackingA mark owner using the dispute process in bad faith to take a name from a legitimate holder
Gripe or fan sitesUsing a mark in a name for criticism or comment, which may be legitimate
Legitimate concurrent claimsTwo honest owners of the same word

Cybersquatting cases

Typosquatting cases

5. The US statute

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 1999 (15 U.S.C. §1125(d)) makes a person liable who, with a bad faith intent to profit, registers, traffics in or uses a domain name identical or confusingly similar to a distinctive mark, or dilutive of a famous mark. It lists factors for bad faith, provides for in rem actions against the name itself where the registrant cannot be found, and allows statutory damages. India has no equivalent; the Indian plaintiff relies on passing off, infringement where the mark is registered, and the INDRP.

Trap. Do not say that registering a domain name containing a mark is always unlawful. Without bad faith, and where the registrant has its own legitimate interest (its own name, a descriptive word, genuine criticism), courts and panels decline relief. The question in every case is whether the registrant is trading on the mark owner’s goodwill.

6. Remedies in Indian courts

How this is examined

Likely long questions: “What is a domain name? Explain the procedure for registration and the nature of domain name disputes.” “Discuss cybersquatting and typosquatting with the help of decided cases.” “Is a domain name a trade mark? Discuss with reference to Satyam Infoway v. Sifynet.”

Likely short notes: cybersquatting; typosquatting; ICANN; NIXI; ACPA; Yahoo! v. Akash Arora; reverse domain name hijacking.

Give the technical explanation briefly, then the uniqueness-territoriality mismatch, which is the analytical point, then the cases by category. End with a sentence pointing to the UDRP and INDRP as the administrative alternative (Unit V note).