INForum, the internet's largest forum dedicated to discussing Indian domain names, has published an interview with Pravin Anand, a leading IP lawyer, about Indian Domain Law.  Here is an excerpt:

What are the practical differences between the INDRP and the UDRP?

Since the INDRP relies heavily on the Arbitration Act 1996 and Indian Evidence Act 1897, the rules as to procedure differ slightly from URDP. INDRP pleadings are required to be more detailed then URDP and make room for written statements and replications/rejoinders. Therefore INDRP Complaints more closely resemble Court pleadings than their international cousin.

Practically, it is pertinent to note that the INDRP panelists may call for the Complainant and allow for personal hearings, which is unheard of in URDP proceedings.

Another important difference between the UDRP and the INDRP is that under the UDRP, a Complainant can not be compensated by the cyber squatter upon winning the action. The WIPO UDRP powers extend only in so far as transferring the disputed domain name to the rightful party. However, NIXI has been innovative in dealing with cyber squatters and has begun awarding the victim companies/persons costs in order to deter cyber squatters.

After decisions like Computer.in, Business.in and Internet.in, are owners of generic .in and .co.in domains in danger of losing their name? There has been a lot of concern over cases where seemingly generic terms were taken away from their owners by .IN Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (INDRP). The INDRP has also expressed the view that since Generic terms are considered public domain and usually given no protection under UDRP because the words are widely used, allowing registration certain terms like Internet.in would offer an unfair competitive advantage to the owner. Trademark owners of generic words can take heart in the fact that generic domains are available for registration on a first come, first serve basis under the INDRP and that the case of Internet.in may well be considered the exception not the rule.

What the .In case law indicates that the registry’s main requirement is that the domain name must be registered in good faith and with the intention to use the domain name for legitimate commercial reasons.

Thus the rulings of the INDRP, in general, seem consistent along the lines that if the respondent does not have a legitimate business use for the domain or it is construed that the owner has registered the name with the sole purpose of selling the domain, then the complainant is awarded ownership of the domain.

After the srcm.in decision, there has been a lot of worry about acronym domain names. However, much of this worry seems to be misplaced. A closer reading of the decision proves that bad faith was found by the Panel on the grounds that the disputed domain name was deceptively similar to the Complainant’s trademark. Further, the Respondent had no explanation for why he was using the said acronym as his domain name. As such honest adopters of domain names have little cause for concern.

Registered trademarks can be looked up on the patent office web site which is www.ipindia.nic.in/. However one needs to know the registration number in order to look up marks.

A piggy bank is also maintained by the registry. To gain access to the piggy bank, a formal request needs to be made to the Registry in writing. Similarly one may apply for an extensive trademarks search with the Trade marks Registry in order to receive such information.

Apart from the INDRP rules, the Indian domainer needs to be aware of the provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1999 (amended). This is especially so as the Indian Courts have declared that domain names operate in the same fashion as trade marks in attracting and maintaining the consumers’ goodwill and cases such as Yahoo! Inc. v. Akash Arora & Anr. Indian Courts have held that trademark law applies with equal force on the Internet as it does in the physical world.

As previously mentioned the INDRP relies heavily on the Arbitration Act 1996 and the Indian Evidence Act 1897. As such any domainer looking to register or dispute ownership of domains in India should familiarize himself with these statutes.

In terms of laws relating specifically to the Internet, the domainer should be familiar with the following Acts and Rules:

· IT ACT 2000
· IT Amendments Bill 2006

The domainer should also be aware of the URDP, as the INDRP relies heavily and borrows consistently from the ICAAN domain name decisions.

The Government of India some years back established the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, as a means to monitor all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from India. Currently, there is no established law as to which websites the government censors, or when. In the past, mainly pornographic and anti-establishment political websites have been blocked.

Adult web sites are restricted as being against public morals and decency. Most registrars and hosts will not register or host web sites which contain adult contents including pornography, warez sites etc. However the discretion as to what the "adult" material is has been left entirely to the registrars and hosts of web sites.

You can read the rest of the interview on the INForum Blog.

Source: Jeff Behrendt writing for DomainNews.com - May 21st, 2008