Yahoo Vs. Akash Arora is one of the first cases with respect to domain name disputes in India, whereby the defendant had bought a domain name “YahooIndia.com.” The plaintiff argued that the defendant had bought the domain name with bad faith in order to provide similar services to that of the plaintiff. The court concluded that the names are similar and there is a clear case of consumer confusion. The defendant was thus restrained from using the said domain.
In a more recent case, M/s Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd vs Antony Adams & Ors., the plaintiff approached the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) for arbitration proceedings against the defendant for the usage of the domain name “kalyanjewlers.com.” However, the WIPO advised the plaintiff to approach the appropriate forum/s to establish bad faith. Following this, a case was filed by the plaintiff in the Madras High Court, where trademark infringement was established, and the defendant was restrained from using the mark “Kalyan” or “Kalyan Jewelers”.
Similarly, another case of this nature is Bundl Technologies Private Limited vs Aanit Awattam alias Aanit Gupta & Ors wherein the plaintiff had filed a case against the defendant for alleged infringement of their trademark Swiggy. The Bombay High Court directed Godaddy LLC (one of the defendants in the said matter) to not register any domain with the word SWIGGY. Aggrieved by the judgement, Godaddy filed an application to partly recall the judgement where they are restrained from registering a domain name with the word “SWIGGY.” Pursuant to the said application, The Bombay High Court modified the judgement, stating that whenever any domain with the word “SWIGGY” will be registered, Godaddy has to inform the plaintiff about it.
In one of the WIPO cases, “Canva” the famous online design and publishing tool filed a case of cybersquatting with the WIPO for the recovery of 174 infringing domain names and successfully got all the domains transferred to its own name.
In another instance, popular Hollywood singer-actress Jenifer Lopez, filed a complaint with the WIPO (The Jennifer Lopez Foundation v. Jeremiah Tieman, Jennifer Lopez Net, Jennifer Lopez, Vaca Systems LLC) for domain name dispute for the domain name “<jenniferlopez.net> and <jenniferlopez.org>. Pursuant to her complaint, the said domain names were transferred in the name of Miss Lopez.
Source: Barandbench
