Satyam Infoway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Satyam Infoway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Court	Supreme Court of India
Full case name	Satyam Infoway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Decided	6 May 2004
Citation(s)	2004 (3) AWC 2366 SC
Court membership
Judges sitting	Ruma Paul, Venkatarama Reddy
Case opinions
The Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999 is applicable to the regulation of domain names
Decision by	Ruma Paul

Satyam Infoway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. was the first case to be decided by the Supreme Court of India on the issue of domain name protection, and dealt with two businesses employing variations on the same mark ("Sify") in their respective domain names.

In the case, the Supreme Court pronounced that the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999 is applicable to the regulation of domain names. The decision in favour of Satyam Infoway was premised on the court's observation that domain names may have all the features of trademarks. The court considered the confusion that may result in the market due to the use of identical or similar domain names. In such a situation, instead of being directed to the website of the legitimate owner of the name, a user could be diverted to the website of an unauthorized user of a similar or identical name. Upon arrival at the unauthorized site, customers might not find the goods or services customarily associated with the mark, and might be led to believe that the legitimate owner was misrepresenting its wares. This could result in the domain name's owner suffering a loss of market share and goodwill.^[1]