Cybersquatting India: Genesis & Legal Scenario

Trademarks serve as identifiers and representatives of a company's goodwill. In recent years, there has been a lot of fuss about trademark infringement through various techniques, one of which being cybersquatting. Cybersquatting is the registration of a domain name that contains a reference to a well-known trademark in order to create the false impression that the domain name belongs to the trademark owner. Such misrepresentation can jeopardize a company's future potential. However, there is no regulation in India that governs cybersquatting, and efforts to achieve this goal have been primarily piecemeal. Despite the existence of an international framework to combat cybersquatting, it is insufficient to address the growing threat of cybersquatting. This document provides the groundwork for enacting anti-cybersquatting laws in India. The authors have adopted black letter method of research and has used secondary materials such as books, online journals, databases, newspaper reports, statistical data etc. to arrive at conclusions.