It is the act of registering domain names, especially those identical or confusingly similar to well known marks, with the intention of gaining profit.
Q. (I unknowingly booked a domain name and spent lot of money in developing and promoting the website. Recently I got a mail saying that I am infringing the trademark of an org. in Germany. I am based in Chandigarh and booked the
domain on first cum first basis.)
A. There can be lot of issues which need to be looked into before giving any clear cut opinion on the same.
First of all, you need to do due diligence about the complainant’s right in a mark which he is asserting. For the purposes of ascertaining the same, you need to do the common law search as well as search from the Trade Mark Databases from the Register of Trade Marks.
If, you find that the complainant has no presence in India and his activities are only limited to Germany or European territories then you can surely have a better right in the Domain name provided you are able to show that the Domain Name so booked by you is being used in a good faith and not for encashing upon the goodwill of the complainant or diverting the traffic of the complainant’s website.
