Maruti loses case in domain name
Last week was a bad day for automaker Maruti-Suzuki when the company lost its domain name to a domain cybersquatter. Maruti Udyog lost its case to Rao Tella, a US citizen and the present owner of the domain name www.maruti.com, for transfer of the domain name to the auto major.
In January 2003, Maruti Udyog had filed an arbitral complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) alleging that Tella’s domain name infringed Maruti’s trademark, `MARUTI’ and, hence, had the right to the domain name. The plaintiff, Tella said that his use of the domain name was lawful as the domain was at one point primarily used to post photos of a nephew named Maruti though later he converted the Web site to an engine portal. Tella earned revenues from the site through an affiliated Web site that paid him every time someone clicked on www.maruti.com to reach the affiliated Web site. However, Tella is known to be a cyber squatter with a history of registering Web sites having the names of trade marked companies.
While it stands a fact that the domainer won the day, it is not fair at all because the automaker is not able to use its name to market its products in the net.