Barkha Dutt wins website
By Shalini Singh

Barkha Dutt is one of India’s most respected and credible journalists.  Barkha is one of the pillars of national TV Channel NDTV and she also writes for Hindustan Times.  Barkha has 30 thousand people following her on Twitter.  I quite like her substance and style.

Journalist Barkha Dutt has just won the domain barkhadutt.com which was registered by Vas Kapavarapu in 2007.  The matter was decided by the highest body in such domain disputes - WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.

While I am not personally sure on whether any Indian should have exclusive rights to such domain names, I do feel that it would be wrong for someone to register ManmohanSingh.com and then misuse it.  But why should we deny a successful farmer Manmohan Singh in Haryana the right to own such a website? What happens if we have another Barkha Dutt becoming the Prime Minister of India? Will politician Barkha have more right over journalist Barkha because she leads super power India?

I digress.  The sole WIPO panelist Harini Narayanswamy who decided in Barkha’s favour on Oct 30, 2009 has given a judgment which makes for interesting reading. The guy who previously owned Barkha Dutt gave an esoteric argument for registering the Barkha Dutt website. Extracts from the judgment read

“
The Panel finds, based on the substantial evidence provided by the Complainant, that she has acquired considerable fame associated with her name as a television reporter and as a talk show host. The Panel accepts the Complainant’s contention that due to her fame she has acquired the status of a celebrity broadcast journalist who regularly appears in the media. In the light of this finding, the Panel is convinced that due to her fame the public has come to recognize and identify the Complainant with her services as a television broadcast journalist and the Complainant therefore has unregistered common law trademark rights in her name.

The Panel finds no merit in the argument extended by the Respondent that the dictionary meaning of the term “Barkhadutt” is “adaption of rain/life giving” in Sanskrit. It is well established that dictionary words or personal names that have acquired fame are found to have secondary meaning and have obtained distinctiveness in commerce which have protectable trademark rights.
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