“Cyber Squatting” is related to “Trade Mark Rights”. Further, any law passed on “Cyber Squatting” in India will interfere with the “Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy” which is a contractual obligation to which all domain name registrants are presently subjected to. It will also affect the rights of Indians who have to face charges of “Squatting” in respect of international generic domain names such as dot com, dot org etc.

 Any law attempted here should therefore be such as not to unduly create a harassment of Indian Citizens.

 It is suggested that a Section may be introduced in Chapter IX to the following effect:

 (PQ)Whoever, in bad faith and with the intention

 to cause disrepute, harm to another person or

cause disruption of any legitimate business or

cause confusion in the minds of the public, who having regard to the circumstances, are likely to be influenced

 registers a domain name

 shall be liable to pay damages to the person so affected not exceeding Rs 10 lakhs

 and for the purpose of this section, a person not being a resident of or a citizen of India shall also be liable even if no computer or computer system located in India is used for the contravention.

 Explanation:

 For the purpose of this section exercising of due diligence including appropriate disclosures shall be considered as indications of lack of bad faith.

(Comments welcome)

Naavi

July 5, 2005

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