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TMI Blog2020 (6) TMI 818X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such bypassing technology is still not common, and the average user may not know about it or even how to use it. But VPN products are available for mobile phone platforms as well now. Therefore, other than lulling an applicant into a completely hollow and faux sense of safety (and conceivably giving some ill-informed government functionary an entirely unwarranted sense of power or authority), blocking access achieves next to nothing. A 'continued suspension' is therefore not possible or practicable at least in the current technology - Upon that end of registration period, there is a further period of two to three weeks as a cooling-off period for the registrant to apply for re-registration in case the registration has inadvertently lapsed. Obviously, that cooling-off period would also be covered by the present order. However, once the domain name is released from registration by one domain name registrar then it is released worldwide across the entire cyber system and network of the internet. This means that any person can then attempt and will succeed in getting a registration through any other registrar or even the very same registrar by a process that is entirely aut ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... There are two other domain name registrars joined to the IA and whose addition I have separately allowed in an application for amendment. These are GoDaddy LLC, now Defendant No. 16 (Respondent No. 1 to this IA) and Porkbun LLC, Defendant No. 20 (Respondent No. 5 to this IA). I will refer to the parties by their names or abbreviations. 8. It is not necessary at this stage to set out at any great length what it is the Plaintiff complained of. Hindustan Unilever Limited, or HUL, the Plaintiff, is one of India's largest companies. It has registration of a number of valuable trade marks covering a range of products. In the Plaint and in a previous application it has been pointed out that its name is also part of its official corporate online identity. Principally, the Plaintiff has the domain name www.hul.co.in. Its global parent is at www.unilever.com. 9. The 5th Defendant and various person and persons unknown have been using variants of HUL's domain name to register fake and fraudulent domain names and to set up websites. They do this to entice and lure the unsuspecting public into parting with significant amounts of money on a completely false promise of being made a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for a specified time, typically a one-year minimum. The process of registering a domain name is trivial. One only has to look up availability of a combination of words and choose a desired top-level or other domain (.in, .com, .net, etc). The entire process of registration is automated and requires no manual intervention. Certainly there is no human element involved in overseeing or assessing the legitimacy of any chosen domain name. Once the domain name is registered, it must point somewhere to be effective. Left idle, it defaults to the domain name registrar's name servers. If a domain name is to be used to point to a website, certain records have to be changed to match those of the webhost -- an entity such as GoDaddy, for instance. It is entirely possible to combine multiple records under a single domain name, so that emails under that domain name are hosted by one entity (say, Google), while the website is hosted elsewhere. The technical reality is far more complex than this, but this much is enough to understand something fundamental: a domain name may have its registration suspended, but the domain name registrar cannot 'block access' to that domain name. Blocki ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s '[email protected]', (d) That pending the final hearing and disposal of the Suit, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to direct the Defendants No. 14 and 15, to forthwith suspend and ensure continued suspension of and block access to: (i) Fraudulent Domain Name 5 i.e. 'unilevercare.in' and associated e-mail address '[email protected]', (ii) Fraudulent Domain Name 6 i.e. 'unilevers.in' and (iii) Fraudulent Domain Name 7 i.e. 'dailyproductscare.in' and associated e-mail address 'support @dailyproductscare.in; (e) That pending the final hearing and disposal of the Suit, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to direct the Respondent No. 5 to forthwith suspend and ensure the continued suspension of 'www.hul.co' i.e., Fraudulent Domain Name 8 and block access thereto. (f) That pending hearing and final disposal of the present suit, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to pass an order directing Defendants No. 1, 14 and 15 forthwith to provide all particulars including registrant names/administrative/technical/billing/customer and ancillary details of the registrant(s) of 'www.unilevercare.co.in' and 'www.unilever ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on'ble Court be pleased to restrain the Defendants No. 1, 14 and 15 and Respondents No. 1 and 5 from registering or allowing the continued registration of any domain names/websites which contain the names/expressions/word/s 'hul', 'hindustanunilever', 'hindustan lever' 'unlever', 'unilever', 'lever' or parts thereof by themselves or in combination with each other or parts thereof or any combination thereof or with any other name(s)/expressions/word/s that are identical with or deceptively similar to the Applicant's domain names bearing these terms or any combination thereof including any domain names/websites which contain any of the names or parts thereof as, or are deceptively similar to those, set out in the list annexed at Exhibit at para 24B of the Plaint, the list annexed at Exhibit A to the Plaint and at 'Exhibit PP' hereto; (l) That pending hearing and final disposal of the present Suit, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to pass an order directing the Respondent No 6 (Police) to take necessary steps to expeditiously investigate the FIR registered on the Applicant's complaint relating to the fraudulent do ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n for all intents and purposes the region-restriction is by-passed: an Indian internet-user could masquerade his or her IP as originating say, in the USA or in Fiji, by accessing a remote server located there. The user will then be 'seen' to be accessing the so-called 'blocked' site from the USA or Fiji; and India-specific access restrictions imposed on domestic internet service providers fail. Now I understand the argument that access to such bypassing technology is still not common, and the average user may not know about it or even how to use it. But VPN products are available for mobile phone platforms as well now. Therefore, other than lulling an applicant into a completely hollow and faux sense of safety (and conceivably giving some ill-informed government functionary an entirely unwarranted sense of power or authority), blocking access achieves next to nothing. 19. So much for blocking access. But to ask for the 'continued suspension' of domain name registration is also technically incorrect. Any domain name Registrar can always suspend a domain that is registered. But the entire process of registration itself is entirely automated and machine-driv ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... are concerned, these call for a disclosure of registrant information from Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun as also from the .in registry and NEIE in respect of the offending registration. I will grant that relief only against Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun, not against the .in registry and NEIE. 26. I come next to the next set of prayer clauses directed against the banks. I cannot grant the blanket injunction in terms of prayer clause (i) to these accounts. But I will grant an order in terms of prayer clause (j) for a disclosure because the amounts involved are significant. 27. As regards prayer clause (k), for the technical reasons I have outlined above, it is not possible to pass an order granting an injunction operating either dynamically or otherwise in future in this fashion. The very technology behind domain name registration does not permit this. There is a technical distinction between blocking a website or access to a website and blocking the registration of a domain name. It is the technology governing the latter that makes the grant of prayer clause (k) unfeasible. 28. That said, it is always open to the Plaintiffs to communicate with Endurance Dom ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with the requirement of a formal IA, not the requirement of coming to Court; and this is only done to ease the burden on the Court. This part of the order is, obviously, liable to be reviewed, modified or recalled at any time. 31. It is my considered view that so far as Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun are concerned, this is a matter that should lend itself to a structured resolution that would result in no longer requiring these parties to continue as party defendants to the Suit. What needs to be established is a working protocol within the limits of what the technology can do and what the law permits. I would encourage all three parties to explore such a settlement so that these disputes between HUL on one side and the domain name registrars on the other do not come in the way of the real objective, which is to find the culprits behind these offending websites -- currently represented in the generic name of Defendant No. 5. 32. Affidavits in Reply, if any, to the amended Plaint to be filed and served on or before 13th July 2020. Affidavits in Rejoinder, if any, to be filed and served on or before 24th July 2020. List the matter before the Regular Court thereafter wit ..... 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