An unnamed app developer from Delhi may have tickled the wrong end of Reliance, by asking the Ambani-led Indian conglomerate to fund his studies in exchange for the domain “jiohotstar.com” that he owns.
After social-media posts of the domain went viral, THE WEEK reached out to this unnamed individual through the generic email address that was provided on the website the domain pointed to.
In an email to THE WEEK earlier today, the techie said that they requested £93,345 (about Rs 1.01 crore) as tuition fee for the Executive MBA programme at Cambridge and was denied. “An Executive from Reliance reached out—Ambujesh Yadav Ji, AVP, Commercials,” they said in the email, “The request has been denied. Reliance will proceed with legal action. I hope they will reconsider this kind request.” THE WEEK reached out to Viacom18 (Reliance) representatives and is yet to hear from them.
Later in the afternoon, the developer updated the website, adding an appeal to the wider public. “I don’t have the power to stand against Reliance. I don’t feel I infringed any trademark when I bought this in 2023, since JioHotstar was not even in existence at that time. Nobody had a trademark for JioHotstar when I bought it. I might automatically lose access to this domain in a few hours. If any legal professional could help, I would be grateful.”
Domain squatting or research move?
In the “open letter” to executives of Reliance Industries, the techie mentioned how they hypothesized that a possible merger would be in the works.
“In early 2023, while scrolling through social media, I came across a news piece stating that Disney+ Hotstar was losing daily active users after losing the IPL streaming license, and Disney is considering selling or merging Hotstar with an Indian competitor.” They stated that Viacom 18, owned by Reliance, was “the only major player with sufficient resources to acquire Disney+ Hotstar.”
Since Jio had the habit of rebranding new acquisitions with “Jio” as the prefix, like they did to JioSaavn (now “JioSaavn”), the developer speculated that “jiohotstar.com” was next in line. “I checked for the domain, and it was available. I was excited, as I felt that if this happened, I could fund my goal of studying at Cambridge.”
According to the developer, they have always wanted to study at a reputed university and saw a chance to fulfil it through funds that were expected from this move. “For a multi-billion dollar company like Reliance, this will be a minor expense, but for me, the sale of this domain would be truly life-changing,” he added.
The legal aspect: does India protect domain registrations?
Back in January 2002, the Delhi High Court heard a similar case (Manish Vij vs Indra Chugh) regarding the domains” kabadibazaar.com” and “kabaribazaar.com”. The latter was allegedly registered to be similar to the former, and the owner of kabadibazaar domain, who had rights to both the domain and trade mark, filed an injunction. The court ruled in their favour, nullifying the use of the similar domain. The court also defined “cyber squatting” as “an act of obtaining fraudulent registration with an intent to sell the domain name to the lawful owner of the name at a premium.”
However, unlike in the US, India does not have strict laws against cyber squatting. Disputes are usually handled on a case-by-case basis in line with the Trademarks Act 1999, where historically, the verdict has been in the favour of the trademark holder.
Back in 2004, the Supreme Court observed, “As far as India is concerned, there is no legislation which explicitly refers to dispute resolution in connection with domain names. But although the operation of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 itself is not extra territorial and may not allow for adequate protection of domain names, this does not mean that domain names are not to be legally protected to the extent possible under the laws relating to passing off. Aggrieved persons can approach the courts to seek relief on the ground of trademark infringement and passing off” in the Satyam Infoway vs Sifynet Solutions case.
Another way to resolve a domain complaint in India is to approach ICANN, which conforms to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy administered by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). India is a member of WIPO and, therefore, it is applicable to use UDRP for domain conflicts.