Sound Board

Our thoughts and views on the practice of Intellectual Property in India and around the world.

Trademarks are to the real world, what domain names are to the virtual world; Trademarks are vital to every business because they help consumers associate the goods or services provided by them to that particular trademark thereby building reputation. Similarly, the Internet is the first port of call for anyone who wants to find information about anything and therefore, it is essential for a company to make its presence felt in the virtual world through a website.

An Internet domain name is an alpha-numeric mnemonic device that can be mapped onto an Internet Protocol ("IP") address to enable users to "surf the Web" more easily than if they had to remember the details of each IP address they wanted to visit. Black’s Law Dictionary defines domain names as the words and characters that website owners designate for their registered Internet addresses. All domain names have at least two levels. The first level domain name identifies the registrants. The…