Managing domain name disputes is a nightmare. Here's how you can avoid visiting those expensive legal eagles.

By Aparna Ramalingam

Monday morning, enter work, open e-mail, in pops help!: ''We are a registered partnership firm dealing with web designing and hosting. One of the partners turned hostile and has administrative control over the websites. Since he's refusing to hand over administrative control (unless paid off), our clients cannot operate or change servers etc., of the sites. Further, the hostile partner can easily transfer the control over the sites to anybody he pleases. Can we ask Network Solutions to help? Can anybody be of help?''

Monday afternoon, another e-mail. Mr X lives in Mumbai. He recently registered a domain name, a nice one. Then comes the shocker: quite inadvertently, Mr X discovers that he doesn't own the name; the domain registrar does. Almost simultaneously, in writes Calcutta-based Nitin with his tale of woe. He registered a domain name, but the registrar inadvertently deleted it. By the time his name was retrieved, someone else had booked the name.

The statistics are scary: 30-40 high-profile Internet intellectual property cases come up every month in the country. The number of queries about domain names runs into the thousands. Emphasises Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India: ''In India, the level of awareness about domain names is very basic. Often clients are led to intermediaries that are not authorised resellers of accredited registrars.''

Post Network Solution's monopoly, there are now over a hundred ICANN-approved (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organisation that oversees the assignment of web addresses) and appointed registrars besides scores of authorised resellers of accredited registrars. In the past few months, a domain name price war has broken out in India. Typically, most domain name registrars provide value-added services, like web hosting, web designing, web solutions and so on. More often than not, consumers bite.

But that's where the trouble starts. ''Lots and lots of Indian companies have started registering the domain name of the client in their own name. And the client is not aware about it,'' says Duggal. No wonder cyber-lawyers have their plate full. Laments Venkatesh Raman Prasad, Attorney, J. Sagar Associates: ''The internet was seen as a means to reduce constraints on the economy, and not to increase liabilities.'' Disagrees S.N. Shukla, Veep, Polar Software: ''Due to awareness, most clients are now smart enough to jump over the hurdles.''

Precautions: How smart are you? Always take certain simple precautions while registering a domain name. One, make sure your name appears as the registrant-that is, the owner-of the domain name. And it's better to have your name tagged to the administrative, billing, and the technical contact. But the registrant is the boss. ''It's easy to change the billing, administrative and the technical contact, but very difficult to change the registrant. People don't understand the importance of being a registrant,'' laments Duggal. And that is a worldwide phenomenon: recently, a US Federal judge barred the owner of sex.com from using the name as he had fraudulently obtained rights to it.

If you happen to find out that you're not the registrant, you'll have to go to the police and lodge an fir under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Other sections of the IPC can also be put into play, depending upon the case. Alternatively, one can make a representation to ICANN. But that's an expensive proposition, as the processing fee comes to $1,000.

Partnerships: Partnerships serve up even more complexities. Usually, there is more than one person in the case-and not all partners are tech savvy. In many cases, the domain name is registered by one partner in his own name and not in the name of the partnership firm. That's a terrible mistake. You must register the domain name in the name of the partnership firm. Under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932, a partnership is a legal entity. This way, no single partner can blackmail the others or hold the partnership to ransom. And even if there is a dispute among the partners, the partnership firm is the owner of the domain name.

The import is clear: once the domain name is registered in the name of the partnership firm, it becomes an asset and is capable of being divided. Moreover, it is very dangerous to give administrative control to any single partner. Preferably, the managing partner should hold the administrative key. An even better solution is to have all the working partners hold the key in rotation. Technology makes that easy. Why, if required, a firm could have a different administrative contact for each day. All this might seem laborious, but then there's also a higher degree of security.

Let's take an instance: if a single partner refuses to hand back the domain name to the partnership firm, then the other partners can file a suit for perpetual and mandatory injunction. This would enable them to get a relief of perpetual injunction, restraining the hostile partner from transferring or alienating the domain name. The aggrieved partners should also get a relief mandatory injunction, directing the hostile partner to hand back the domain name to the partnership firm. Moreover, one could complain to the police under the sections of Misappropriation of Partnership Property and Cheating and Criminal Breach of Trust in the IPC.

Remember, even if a company nominates one of its directors as the administrative contact, the domain name should be registered in the company's name, as it is a legal entity under the Companies Act, 1956. Companies are today more aware of the issues related to domain name registration, but the irony is that they remain the biggest targets of cyber-squatters.

Are there any more options to protect the consumer's interests? Clearly, prevention is better than cure. Agrees Prasad: ''There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Comparative law is a good beginning.''

At the other end, the cyber-squatting monster refuses to die; it's growing bigger. ICANN has voted to add seven new suffixes to the existing seven in the top domain name level. The new domains will come into operations in q2 2001. Many see problems here as registrations of domain names skyrocket. ''Cyber-squatters are going to run amok. They are going to go after the top-level corporates first,'' warns Prasad. So, expect a lot of confusion over the next few months. Tread carefully. And remember, there's no free lunch.

Issue Contents  Write to us   Subscriptions   Syndication 

INDIA TODAY |  INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY
TEENS TODAY | NEWS HOME | MUSIC TODAY | ART TODAY | CARE TODAY

© Living Media India Ltd