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Informist, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has said domain name registrars will lose the "safe harbour protection" and would be liable to pay monetary damages if they continue to promote alternative infringing domain names that infringes on the trademarks of entities. "Safe harbour protection" shields online platforms from liability for illegal content posted by users, provided they meet specific conditions, like having no "actual knowledge" of the illegality and removing it promptly upon notification.

 

Many domain name registrars and other intermediaries do not merely offer domain name registration services, but also provide add-on services, auction services, and alternative domain names, said the court. The various services provided by domain name registrars through which significant revenue is also generated include offering domain names with varying extensions or suffixes of well-known brands, marks on premium rates, by putting infringing domain names in the common pool so that revenues can be earned repeatedly, though said domain names have been declared to be infringing. 

 

These services by domain name registrars not only generate revenue for them and registry operators but also help persons with illegal and unlawful motives to register domain names which are similar to well-known marks, brands and house-marks, said the court. Such domain name registrars may, therefore, not merely be considered as "intermediaries" but as complicit in actively enabling infringement, said the court. 

 

It is a settled position in law in India that registration of an infringing domain name would not be permissible as there is every likelihood that the same could lead to diversion of users from the genuine website to the infringing one, said the high court. Thus, the non-implementation of steps to prevent trademark infringement coupled with various means and methods adopted by the domain name registrars to maximise their revenues would actually lead to non-grant of safe harbour protection, said the court.

 

Offering of privacy by default to registrants is one of the reasons for proliferation of illegal domain names, said the court. Thus, unless and until a registrant requests for privacy protection, the same should not be offered as a default mechanism, the court added. 

 

The high court was hearing a batch of commercial suits by various trademark owners seeking injunctions against misuse of their trademarks through registration of domain names by unknown persons. These domain names consist of either the full trademark or a distinctive part of the trademark or the brand name and are being used for illegitimate means in order to derive monetary benefits. The court passed a series of directions to domain name registrars, the government, and banks in the case for protection of trademarks.

 

The high court directed the domain name registrars and registry operators to not resort to masking details of the registrants, administrative contact and technical contact on a default basis as an "opt-out" system. At the time of registration of the domain names, a specific option shall be provided for the registrant and it is only if the registrant chooses for privacy protection, the said service shall be offered as a value-added service upon payment of additional charges, said the court. The additional charges shall not be made a part of the default package for registration of domain names, the court added.

 

Whenever any entity or individual having legitimate interest, law enforcement agencies or the courts, requests for disclosure of data relating to any infringing or unlawful domain name, it should be disclosed by the concerned domain name registrars as soon as possible but not later than 72 hours in terms of the Intermediaries Guidelines 2021, said Justice Prathiba M. Singh. If any particular domain name is restrained by an order of injunction or has been found to be used for illegitimate and unlawful purposes, it shall remain permanently blocked and shall not be put in a common pool in order to disable re-registration of the same domain name by other registrars, said the court.

 

The government shall hold a stakeholder consultation with all domain name registrars and registry operators offering services in India and explore the possibility of putting in place a framework similar to the one used by National Internet Exchange of India by all registrars for the purpose of domain name registration, said the court. National Internet Exchange of India is a non-profit organization that manages India's internet traffic, acting as a neutral hub for internet service protocols to exchange data locally, which improves speed, reduces costs, and enhances digital security by keeping Indian data within the country. It also manages India's .IN domain registry and the National Internet Registry for internet protocol addresses and automatic systems, making it crucial for India's digital infrastructure. The government should consider the nomination of a nodal agency such as National Internet Exchange of India as the data repository agency for India with which all the registry operators and the domain name registrars would maintain details related to registrants on a periodic basis, said the court.

 

All banks shall mandatorily implement the "Beneficiary Bank Account Name Lookup" facility in terms of the Reserve Bank of India circular dated Dec. 30, 2024 for all online payments including payment by Unified Payments Interface through applications such as Google Pay, Paytm and others, said the court. All banks shall also abide by the standard operating procedures issued by Central Economic Intelligence Bureau in 2024 for processing and responding to requests received from law enforcement agencies, said the court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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