Harshita Mathur, Christ (Deemed To Be University) Pune Lavasa Campus
ABSTRACT
This research paper deals with one of the cyber-crimes that is an ambush to intellectual property rights of an entity. The crime is cyber-squatting where a domain in name of any trademark, brand or company is booked in order to sell them for profit in future or else is used to fake visiting page of the company to earn profits and have visitors. To understand the adage of this cyber issue better, the paper first mentions about the domain name and its significance to the world of intellectual properties in relation with digital space. Later the functional equivalence of domain name and trademark is established here to understand the effect of this crime better. And later various categories of cyber-squatting is mentioned herein it understand the different forms in which this cyber-crime can take place.
Further the paper moves towards the cyber-crimes being new to the legal atmosphere, this practice of cyber-squatting doesn’t have any specific of dedicated laws in India and thus, being a crime related to intellectual property is being governed under Trade Mark Act, 1999. Thus, by referring to various cases, the paper will determine how Indian jurisprudence after understanding the lacuna but in the absence of explicit legislation apply various provisions for the dispute resolution.
After looking at the status of Indian jurisprudence over this issue, the paper deals with some international policies and programs and dispute resolution service providers like ‘The uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy’ and many more. It further also describes the role of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) which can help reduce this terrific crime. Therefore, this research paper not only entails the aim of analyzing the existing laws used to decide such cases but also to determine the potential laws that can be curated in order to protect such cyberspace related IPR crimes. The mention of various Indian legislations that have applicability over the cases of cyber-squatting also finds place to ensure legal support to the victims. Also, apart from analyzing the current legal status of cyber- squatting, the paper also digs deep into how judicial activism can play the role in providing relief for such legally vague crime. how it affects the intellectual property rights of businesses and companies and it can be a really great major threat to such corporate entities. However, before the role of legal system, it is our call to ensure the safety of us and our entities over such sensitive digital platform. Thus, paper provides guidance about how to recognize if the domain name one wants to use is being used by a cyber squatter and talks about the proceed further with the issue.
Lastly, the research paper provides conclusion that states and provides for the best solutions to this cyber world related issue. It also helps us determine the best laws and policies that would have the competency to protect both consumers and trademark holders from this issue of cybersquatting.
Keywords: Cyber-crime, Cyber-squatting, Domain name, Trademark, Intellectual property, Digital space
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