Thread: WIPO Decision: "Ta Ta Bye Bye" to Domain Name

Jeff,
Not sure if Tata owns oktata.in - though they did register OKTATA.co.in in 2002.
Website status for oktata.co.in - is inactive, so tata purchased the domain but never bothered to create a site or redirect to any of it's group.
If we look at other TLD's
oktata.com and oktata.net were registered in 2000
oktata.com for travelogue (not sure how it was all these years - right now it is just a one pager on Rohtang pass) while oktata.net claims to give bestdeals on wheels - though it shows a blank page. Both are owned by single entity.

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a. TATA's domain is inactive - so obviously I can't divert traffic from a non existent / inactive website
b. This appears more like a reverse domain name hijacking effort by TATA.
c. It is possible that TATA has TM on OK and TM on TATA, but do they have TM by the phrase OKTATA - I doubt, else all domains not owned by TATA could be next targets.
Lucky for them that owners of oktata.com / .net didn't register oktata as TM else TATA would have had to say tata bye bye to oktata.co.in for violating and tm infringement (considering it came in existent 2 years after .com / .net were registered!!!)
Btw - oktata.org / oktata.biz are still not registered any takers!!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by pubdomains.in

Btw - oktata.org / oktata.biz are still not registered any takers!!!

Only if you want to play with fire!

It isn't everyday that I come across a comic strip that stems from a WIPO decision. Check it out:

Tata gets possessive about the Tata Brand

Thanks for the comic!

I'm surprised how much coverage this case has received outside of the domainersphere.

Oktatabyebye.com (aka MakeMyTrip) has now appealed the WIPO decision in the Delhi High Court.

In its petition, MakeMyTrip submitted that its domain name www.oktatabyebye.com does not clash with the registered trademark of Tata Sons and it had a mere phonetic similarity.

The matter will be again taken up by the court's registrar on January 11, 2010.

Source: MakeMyTrip moves Delhi HC against ruling favouring Tatas over domain name clash

It will be very interesting to see how the High Court decides this case...

An observation:

The authorities concerned have not at all taken note of the fact that "tata" is also a popular generic word, widely used in India for bidding farewell, and when one says tata to someone it does not lead to recall of any company's trademark in the remotest sense.

And, a query:

If someone registers the domain name BatataWada.com (it's available) and sells "batata wada" from that site, will the concerned authorities conclude that batatawada.com is fishing for the customers of a particular company whose trademark happens to be present in the initial part of this name which is in fact a generic word (2 prominent companies can fight over this as there are 2 well known trademark names in this generic word, which means potato in the local language).

FYI, A batata wada is something similar to a vegetable cutlet. Batata is the local name for potato in western India and wada is the local name for a ball shaped cookie, and both words I believe, are 100% generic.

And, a recipe for lightening the moods:

To make "Batata Wada", you mash boiled potatoes, stir fry them in light spices with grated onions and a paste of ginger and green chillies, make balls of the resulting mixture, dip them in a batter of Bengal gram flour and cook in oil. Also called "bonda" or "aloo bonda" in many parts of India, it is available in street corner stalls for less than 10 cents a piece, whereas the same may cost upto a few dollars in hotels similar to the one's owned by... it's your guess?

I'm having a hard time making my mind up about this case, as I can see both sides of the argument.

On the one hand, Tata is a well-known registered trademark. Seems like Tata Sons obtained a secondary meaning for the generic farewell term "ta ta" (just like Apple Inc did for "apple").

On the other hand, "Ok ta ta bye bye" is a common farewell statement, and MakeMyTrip did not use the disputed domain in the same channel of trade as Tata Sons.

It seems that Tata Sons registered OkTata.in a few months before OkTaTaByeBye.com was registered.

Lastly:

Originally Posted by a2zofb2b

But, I can't understand why MMT registered ClearTrip.net.in (ClearTrip.com is a competitor )
http://whois.domaintools.com/cleartrip.net.in

ClearTrip.com was registered in 2005, while ClearTrip.net.in was registered in 2007. According to Archive.org, ClearTrip.net.in had links to both MakeMyTrip.com and MakeMyTrip.co.in...