Someone Has Registered a Website Address Using Your Brand: Getting the Domain Back

How Indian law treats a domain name

A domain name is treated in India much like a trade mark. The Supreme Court held in Satyam Infoway Ltd v. Sifynet Solutions (2004) that a domain name is not just an internet address but identifies the business behind it, so a deceptively similar domain can be stopped by an action for passing off. The Delhi High Court had taken the same approach earlier, in cases such as Yahoo Inc. v. Akash Arora (1999), where a look-alike domain was restrained.

That gives a brand owner three routes. For a .in domain, a complaint under the .IN Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, known as the INDRP, run by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). For .com and most other generic domains, a complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), commonly filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. And, for any domain, a civil suit for infringement and passing off in court, which in Delhi often means the Delhi High Court.

The choice depends on what you need. If you want the domain back and nothing more, the INDRP or UDRP is usually quicker and cheaper. If the site is being used to cheat people, if there are many domains, if you want damages, or if you need orders against registrars and banks, a suit is the better tool. Our guide on how to get back a domain name taken by a cybersquatter gives a shorter overview for first-time readers.

The rules that decide a domain name dispute

Is it really cybersquatting? Signs the tribunals look for

Not every similar domain is a wrong. A person called Mehra may register mehra.in for his own family business, and a word that is common in the trade can be registered by anyone who uses it in its ordinary sense. The question is whether the registrant chose the domain to ride on your name.

The usual signs of bad faith are an offer to sell the domain to you or your competitor at a price far above registration cost; a parked page full of pay-per-click advertisements for your own products or rivals; registration soon after you launched a product or announced a new brand; misspellings of a well-known mark (typosquatting); a registrant who was your employee, developer, agent or distributor; false or hidden contact details; and use of the domain for email that impersonates your staff.

Timing matters. If the domain was registered years before you adopted your brand, bad faith at registration is hard to prove, although the INDRP's wording allows a complaint based on bad faith use. Where the registrant has used the name for a genuine business, the dispute is really a trade mark dispute, not cybersquatting, and is better fought in court.

Route one: an INDRP complaint for a .in domain

The complaint is filed electronically with NIXI, one domain per complaint, with the fee prescribed by NIXI. At the time of writing NIXI's published fee for a single arbitrator case is about Rs 30,000 plus GST, but check the current schedule. The complaint is limited in length, must set out the complainant's rights in the mark, the facts on each of the three elements and the remedy sought, and must be served on the registrant by the complainant.

After a compliance check, NIXI appoints an arbitrator from its panel, who issues notice to the registrant. The arbitrator is required to pass an award within 60 days of the start of the proceeding, extendable in exceptional cases by up to 30 days. Hearings are rare; the case is decided on documents, in English. Many registrants do not respond at all, and the arbitrator then decides on the complainant's papers, though the complainant must still prove every element.

If the complaint succeeds, the award directs the registrar to transfer the domain to the complainant or cancel it, and NIXI oversees implementation. The registrant can challenge the award under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act in the Delhi courts, which have exclusive jurisdiction under the INDRP rules, but the grounds are narrow.

In Advocate B.K. Singh's experience, INDRP complaints fail less often on the law than on proof: a complainant who files a trade mark certificate but no evidence of use, reputation or the registrant's conduct gives the arbitrator little to work with. Screenshots of the parked page, the registrant's offer to sell and the date of your first use are what win these cases.

Route two: a UDRP complaint for .com and other generic domains

For .com, .net, .org, .shop, .online and most other generic domains, the UDRP applies, and complaints are commonly filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, though other approved providers exist. The process is online and in writing. A decision usually comes within about two months of filing if the registrant does not contest seriously.

The UDRP requires bad faith in both registration and use, which is stricter than the INDRP. Domains registered long before your brand existed are hard to recover under it. Country-code domains of other countries, such as .co.uk or .ae, follow their own national policies, which vary.

Once a UDRP panel orders transfer, the registrar waits ten business days. If the registrant files a lawsuit in a court of competent jurisdiction within that time and informs the registrar, the transfer is put on hold. A UDRP decision does not bind an Indian court, and either side can still sue on the underlying trade mark rights.

Route three: a suit in the Delhi High Court

A suit for infringement and passing off is the right tool when the problem is larger than one domain. The Delhi High Court has, in many cases, granted ex parte injunctions directing registrars to lock and suspend infringing domains, ordering disclosure of the registrants' identity and payment details, and extending the order to mirror domains that appear later. In Dabur India Ltd v. Ashok Kumar (2022 onwards), filed against unknown persons running fake dealership sites, the court passed detailed directions to domain registrars, banks and government departments. Some of the directions to registrars were challenged, so the current position on what registrars must do should be checked before relying on it.

A suit also allows damages and costs, which neither the INDRP nor the UDRP can award, and it binds the defendant personally rather than only the domain. Where the defendant is unknown, the suit can be filed against 'Ashok Kumar' (John Doe) defendants, with the court directing the registrar to disclose who they are.

Domain disputes are often one part of a wider brand dispute. If the same person is also selling goods under your mark or has registered your mark at the Trade Marks Registry, the cases should be planned together, using our pages on trademark infringement and passing off suits and trademark rectification. Where the misuse is of a person's name or face rather than a business name, see personality rights and misuse of your name or image.

Fake websites cheating your customers

The most urgent domain cases today are not about selling a domain back. They are about sites that copy a brand's logo and content to take money: fake dealership and franchise offers, fake job offers with registration fees, fake customer care numbers and fake online stores. Every day such a site stays up, more people lose money and blame the real company.

Act on three tracks at once. File a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in, helpline 1930) and with the cyber police, asking for the bank accounts and phone numbers to be traced. Send an abuse complaint to the registrar and hosting provider, which sometimes takes a site down within days. And, if the sites keep appearing, file a suit in the Delhi High Court for a wider injunction covering present and future look-alike domains, with orders to banks and telecom providers. The criminal side is covered on our page on cyber crime cases in the Delhi High Court.

Put a clear public warning on your real website and social media, listing your only official domains and payment channels. Courts take note of a brand owner who has acted promptly to protect the public.

Challenging or defending an arbitrator's decision

An INDRP award is challenged by a petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, within three months of receiving it, extendable by up to 30 days for sufficient cause. The court does not rehear the case. It will interfere only on grounds such as lack of proper notice, the arbitrator going beyond the dispute, or patent illegality. In Kashmir Harvard Educational Institute v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (2024), a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed an appeal against the refusal to set aside an INDRP transfer award and imposed costs, which shows how limited the review is. The arbitration route is explained in more detail on our sister site, arbitrationlawyer.in.

For a UDRP decision, the registrant's remedy is a suit within the ten business day window to stop the transfer, followed by a full trial of the trade mark issues. Waiting beyond that window means the domain moves first and the case is fought afterwards.

If you are defending, the strongest answers are a genuine prior use of the name for your own business, the name being your own personal or company name, the word being generic or descriptive and used in that sense, or the site being a genuine fan, review or criticism site without commercial gain. Where a complainant files knowing it has no case, a panel can record a finding of reverse domain name hijacking.

Which forum hears it, and why Delhi

INDRP arbitrations have their seat at NIXI's office in Delhi, and the INDRP rules give the Delhi courts exclusive jurisdiction, so Section 34 challenges to INDRP awards are filed in Delhi. The Delhi High Court has heard many of these as commercial arbitration petitions on its original side. Which court in Delhi hears a particular challenge can depend on value and the commercial court rules, so check before filing.

For a suit, a registered trade mark owner can sue where it carries on business under Section 134 of the Trade Marks Act. For passing off and unregistered marks, jurisdiction follows Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure: where the defendant resides or works, or where the cause of action arose. For websites, the Delhi High Court held in Banyan Tree Holding v. A. Murali Krishna Reddy (2009) that a site merely being accessible in Delhi is not enough; it must target users in Delhi, for example by selling or taking orders here.

In Delhi, IP suits are commercial suits. A suit valued above Rs 2 crore is filed in the High Court and goes to its Intellectual Property Division; smaller suits go to the district commercial courts. The Rs 2 crore figure is the limit at present; a proposal to raise it is pending, so check the current limit. Section 12A pre-institution mediation applies unless urgent interim relief is sought, which is usually the case with live fake sites.

Step by step: recovering a domain or shutting down a fake site

1. Preserve evidence

   Take dated screenshots of the site, the WHOIS record, any sale offer and any messages from victims. Save the page with its source if possible, because sites disappear once a complaint is filed.

2. Identify the registry and registrar

   Find out whether the domain is a .in (INDRP), a generic domain (UDRP) or another country's domain, and which registrar holds it. Registrant details are now usually masked, but the registrar and NIXI can disclose them in proceedings.

3. Decide whether to buy, notify or file

   If the domain is parked and the price is small, an anonymous purchase through a broker may be cheapest. A notice to a known registrant sometimes works. For a fraud site, skip negotiation and move straight to complaints and court.

4. File the complaint or the suit

   For INDRP or UDRP, file the complaint with proof of your mark, use, reputation and the registrant's bad faith. For a suit, file the plaint with documents, a statement of truth and an application for an interim injunction against the registrant, the registrar and unknown defendants.

5. Get interim relief or the award

   The court may grant an ex parte order at the first hearing directing the registrar to lock and suspend the domain and disclose the registrant. Under INDRP, the arbitrator decides within the time set by the rules.

6. Implement the transfer

   Coordinate with the registrar and NIXI to move the domain into your account. Renew it for several years, enable registrar lock and keep the account in the company's name.

7. Follow through

   In a suit, continue to trial or settlement, seek costs and damages, and extend the injunction to new mirror domains by application. Monitor for fresh registrations of your brand.

Time and cost by route

Our professional fees are discussed at the first meeting and agreed in writing, stage by stage. An uncontested INDRP complaint for one domain costs much less than a suit against a network of fraud sites.

Documents to collect

If you are the one accused of cybersquatting

Read the complaint carefully and note the deadline for your response; under the INDRP and the UDRP the window is short and an unanswered complaint is decided against you on the papers. Do not transfer or delete the domain while the case is pending, and do not change the content of the site in a way that looks like hiding evidence.

Collect proof of why you chose the name and what you used it for: business registration, invoices, older versions of the site, and the date you registered compared with the date the complainant's brand began. A small business that has used a name honestly for years can and should defend it, and may have its own passing off claim if the complainant is the later user.

Mistakes brand owners make with domains

• Letting the developer register the domain. If the registration is in the developer's or an employee's name, you depend on that person. Always register in the company's name and keep the login.
• Letting a domain lapse. Expired domains are bought within hours by people who resell them. Renew for several years and turn on auto-renewal.
• Opening with a large offer. Offering a squatter money too early sets the price and can weaken a later bad faith argument.
• Filing on a weak mark. A descriptive word with no proof of reputation is a poor base for a complaint. Gather evidence of use first.
• Choosing the wrong route. An INDRP complaint gets one domain back; it does nothing about the bank account collecting fraud payments. Fraud needs police action and, often, a suit.
• Missing the UDRP window. A registrant who loses and wants to stop the transfer has ten business days to file in court. After that, the domain moves.

NRI and foreign brand owners

INDRP and UDRP complaints are filed and decided online, so an overseas brand owner never needs to come to India. A Delhi suit can also run without travel: pleadings are signed under a power of attorney, documents signed abroad are apostilled or legalised, and hearings can be attended by video where the court permits. Our page for NRI and overseas clients in the Delhi High Court sets out the paperwork.

A foreign brand that has not yet entered India can still protect its name here if it can show a reputation reaching Indian consumers, through travel, online presence and media. The stronger the evidence of Indian awareness, the easier the domain case becomes. Registering the Indian trade mark early, as explained in our guide on protecting a trademark before going to court, makes every later route simpler.

What to do this week

Save screenshots and the WHOIS record today, before anyone is warned. List every domain you own and check who the registrant is and when each expires. If a fraud site is live, file the cyber crime complaint and the registrar abuse complaint at once, and put a warning on your official site.

Then decide on the route: INDRP for a .in domain, UDRP for a generic domain, a suit where there is fraud, several domains or a need for damages. Advocate B.K. Singh usually reads the trade mark file and the evidence of the registrant's conduct together before choosing, because that pairing decides which forum will act fastest. For advice on your papers, or for an update on how the Delhi High Court is currently treating registrar orders, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.