BJP boss squatter fined
By Techgirl

Arun Jaitley is one of the most successful lawyers in India as well as the current Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.  When Vajpayee was PM, this BJP leader was the Union Minister for commerce, industry, law and justice of the Government of India.

Arun Jaitley wanted to register the domain arunjaitley.com, but found that it had been registered in 2009 but the site registration had expired and was pending deletion.

IP and legal blog SpicyIP has detailed how the people in control of the domain, sensing a quick buck, offered to sell it to Arun for as much as $14,000. It was never a good idea to take one of the most prominent lawyers in India especially when the domain name had expired and did not belong to anyone.  According to the analysis of the court judgment on Spicy IP, the Judge not only admonished the defendants but also ordered them to pay Rs. 5 Lakh to Mr. Jaitley.

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Thus, the court found mala fide intention on the part of the defendants in trafficking the domain name, with the objective of extracting a hefty auction price from the plaintiff. It thus granted punitive damages to the tune of Rs.5 lakhs to the plaintiff for “causing hardship and harassment and mental torture to the plaintiff in getting back the domain name”. The court further restrained Portfolio Brains from adopting, or using the mark in any manner whatsoever in cyberspace. It also directed the transfer of the said domain to the plaintiff with immediate effect. It made a direction under the ICANN rules to block the domain name and immediately transfer this domain name to the plaintiff with requisite charges and formalities and ordered the first two defendants to co-operate in above actions.
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Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.