Domain Name Protection Law In India Needed

Domain names have assumed great significance these days. This is also the reason why many individuals and organisations have shown great interest in the new generic top level domains launched by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). However, a domain name, new GTLDs and dispute resolution is not an easy task to manage.

In India we have another problem to address. We have no dedicated domain name protection law in India. Domain name protection in India is still provided under the trademark law of India. This is a serious flaw as domain names are essential part of commercial activities, e-governance and e-commerce infrastructure and we have no law that addresses violations committed against domain names.

If we continue to redress domain name violations under the existing trademark law, it may be counter productive in the long run. Of course, we use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism like arbitration to resolve domain name disputes out of the court. Surprisingly, online dispute resolution (ODR) in India has still not been considered to resolve domain name disputes on large scale in India.

The importance of domain names and corresponding stake there under have further increased due to the recent announcement of ICANN to register new generic top level domains (GTLDs). In fact, ICANN’s new generic top level domain names (new GTLDs) registration has begun and is in progress.

Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) recommend that the new GTLD applicants must undertake due diligence before applying for the same. A risks and benefit analysis of ICANN’s new GTLDs registrations must be made by individuals and companies alike.

In particular, the applicants must make a techno legal analysis, new GTLDs due diligence, anticipate possible legal rights objections under ICANN's new GTLD program, etc. The legal issues of new GTLDs application, their registration and subsequent litigations would surface and a sound strategy in this regard can help in minimising the legal risks associated with the same.

Even after the application period for new GTLDs would be over, there is no guarantee that legal and other objections would not be raised. It is recommended by Perry4Law and PTLB to formulate a good techno legal strategy by the new GTLDs applicants for successful registration of new GTLDs in their names.

Further, we also recommend that Indian government must start the legislative process of enacting a dedicated domain name protection law for India. The sooner it is done the better it would be for the larger interest of all stakeholders.

Legal Issues Of Entertainment And Media Industry In India

Media and entertainment industry of India is heading towards a big growth rate. Entertainment and media industry growth and challenges in India are also well known. Legal frameworks in this regard are in the process of improvement and modification in India.

Legal issues of media and entertainment industry of India are too diverse and wide to be discussed in a single article. This piece is covering some of the basic level legal issues of media and entertainment industry of India.

Indian media and entertainment industry may face the legal challenges of Intellectual Property rights (IPRs) laws and cyber law of India. IPRs laws like copyright, trademark, etc may be frequently violated and occasionally invoked to redress IPRs violations of media and entertainment industry in India. Similarly, online IPRs issues like domain name disputes may also be agitated in the future. Similarly, media and entertainment industry must keep in mind the mandates like “cyber due diligence” and other provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000.

Media and entertainment industry will also face technological challenges in future. For instance, the issues pertaining to digital preservation of entertainment industry products may assume significance in future.

Dispute resolution of media and entertainment industry is of paramount importance in India. With the growth of media and entertainment industry in India there are also increasing cases of disputes as well. A majority of these disputes pertain to intellectual property rights (IPRs) issues.

Disputes prevention and resolutions in the film and media industry of India is still evolving. We have to device methods like Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in this regard.

Surprisingly, Asian Film and Media Industry are not considering utilising the Services of WIPO in this regard. Asian companies prefer to utilise tradition litigations methods instead of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or online dispute resolution (ODR).

Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) has opened a techno legal ODR platform where ADR and ODR is used for resolving all sorts of commercial and civil disputes that can be resolved using ADR and ODR. PTLB would cover this issue subsequently in its other posts.

Entertainment And Media Industry Disputes Resolutions in India

Entertainment and media industry disputes are in abundance these days. Popular movies makers are strongly guarding their copyright, neighbouring rights, trademark, etc in India. The popular movie Sholay is a classic example of the same where the name of the movie, songs and even characters have acquired distinctiveness and are protected in India.

Further, digital media and contents are frequently pirated in India. Cases pertaining to these digital contents of entertainment industry are also rising in India. This has posed many novel technical and legal challenges before the entertainment and media industry of India.

A very strange trend in the Asian countries, especially India, regarding entertainment, media and film industry related disputes is that they are essentially resolved through traditional litigation methods. There is hardly any use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or online dispute resolution (ODR) methods to resolve such disputes.

Even more bizarre is the fact that such disputes are seldom taken to International level to be decided by international organisations like World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Although WIPO has a dedicated mechanism to resolve entertainment and film industry related disputes yet Asian countries are mostly “respondents” there.

This shows that Asian countries are not utilising international platforms of organisations like WIPO for getting their disputes resolved. This is a trend that needs to be changed as use of ADR and ODR is certainly “more beneficial” for entertainment, media and film Industry.

However, despite all assurances, entertainment, media and film industry would not be encouraged to approach international platforms in the absence of national level participations. Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) has opened a techno legal ODR platform where ADR and ODR is used for resolving all sorts of commercial and civil disputes that can be resolved using ADR and ODR.

With national initiatives becoming popular and frequently used, international platforms may also be approached later on. However, collaboration between national and international ADR and ODR institutions is need of the hour to achieve that objective. Till now this collaboration is missing that is also the main reason why no link between national and international organisations has been established so far.