A Delhi-based anonymous techie has landed in murky waters after Reliance Industries threatened legal action against them after the former bought the domain name “JioHotstar.com” in 2023.

What Happened: On Thursday, the anonymous Delhiite posted a note on the website that went viral, explaining that they had bought the domain last year in hopes of a successful merger between Jio and Hotstar.

They speculated that Reliance might rebrand it as JioHotstar, in line with how it rebranded JioSaavn. This would lead Reliance to buy back the domain from them for a hefty amount with which they hoped to pursue their higher studies from Cambridge University, they wrote.

“My intention of buying this domain was simple: if this merger happens, I might be able to fulfil my dream of studying at Cambridge,” the Delhi-based app developer said in the note.

However, in a subsequent update, they said that Reliance had denied their request for a payment of £93,345 (₹1.01 crore) to fund their tuition fees. The company also threatened legal action, they said. In their most recent update, the techie said several lawyers and legal professionals have reached out to them advising them to hold on to the domain and fight for it.

Benzinga spoke with legal experts to understand the scope of India’s intellectual property and trademark laws and how they are expected to play out in this case.

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What Do Lawyers Think?

Sudarshan Singh Shekhawat, founder of Shekhawat Law suggested that this is a clear case of bad faith cybersquatting, where the person is violating another party’s intellectual property rights for personal profit. The noble intent, unfortunately, is irrelevant in this case, he said.

Moreover, given that the person admitted that they intended to profit from Reliance’s potential deal with Disney — even if it was to fund their “dream” — it may be hard to prove that the domain name was acquired in good faith, he believes.

“Just because the combination of the marks “Jio” and “Hotstar” was not protected, does not mean one gets a right over their combination and register domain names. In fact, that could be two violations instead of one as they were likely registered separately,” Shekhawat added.

Explaining the legality of the case, Ronil Goger, managing partner at Blaze Legal, said the domain name, acquired from registrar NameCheap, is required to follow international policy relating to domain names, as per the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The policy states that if a dispute arises, the factors considered include whether the name is identical or similar to an existing trademark, whether a person has any legitimate rights or interests in registering it, and whether it was registered in bad faith.

The person’s admission that the domain name was registered to profit off of Reliance suggests that it was done in bad faith, which violates this policy, Goger said.

Subhash Bhutoria, founder and principal at Law SB said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had previously noted that the companies have not yet decided on the integration of Hotstar and Jio Cinema.

He said this statement is important for the CCI’s approval. Therefore, transferring the domain name to either company (which is usually the remedy in UDRP arbitration) could be viewed as contradicting what the parties told the CCI and may have consequences under competition law, Bhutoria said.

While this looks like cybersquatting, the companies should seek proper legal advice, given the larger competition law concerns, he added.

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