Trademark Law and Domain Name System: The Conflict Unveiled

Abstract

In the competitive markets of today the significance of trademarks and brand names is very high. The protection of trademarks is said to be a “piece of legal underpinning to an essential economic process. But the trademark law has been influenced tremendously in the present day internet environment. Technologies are changing so fast that even the speed of light seems threatened. Business worldwide have started to realize the significant potential of websites as a primary means of facilitating electronic commerce and this the phenomenal growth of internet as a commercial medium has brought about new set of concerns in the realm of intellectual property Now e-commerce and trading through internet, has become part of the present day economy and for every commercial organization to survive, a presence in internet, a website is imperative. Since websites should have an address to be located, so in order to facilitate this job, domain names become necessary. Thus, a new concept has arisen in the cyberspace in relation to trademark in real space i.e. domain names. Domain names play the same role in cyberspace as the trademark plays in real space and it can be seen that in short span of time the conflict between trademark and domain names, have crept up and this tension has lead to innumerable issues that raise serious questions regarding policy. These policy questions arise because of system of internet, which does not respect any boundaries, cannot reconcile with the system designed for physical and territorial world. An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the nature of conflict between trademark law and domain name system ,types of the disputes which arise because of such conflict and jurisdictional problems of cyberspace .As the fact cannot be overlooked that the intersection of domain name system (DNS) and intellectual property system is but one example of larger phenomena: the intersection of global medium, in which traffic circulates without cognizance of borders with territorially based system that emanate from Sovereign authority of the territory.