Foreign Trademark - Indian Domain Issue

[hushar]

Hello,

Few months ago i have registered .in domain, now i have been contacted by legal advisor of foreign trademark owner regarding Transfer of Domain Name to them on basis of unique trademark & consumer confusion.
They also agree to pay upto $100 usd as cover for my expenses.
According to my knowledge they dont have registered trademark in India, now i want to know few things such as:
1] Do i accept the offer and lose my domain to avoid some penalties?
2] if being penalties, how much that could be (range)?
3] can i keep that domain name if i own (try to register) trademark here in India now?
4] Please help me with your views and experiences as am totally confused..


Thanks in advance..

 

[chandan]

is the name is generic word or its the company name ?

without name its difficult to tell anything.

 

[Ceres]

Hi hushar,

You state that they own a foreign trademark for your domain. An important question is whether or not they own trademark rights in India (either registered or common law rights). If yes, then you might well face trademark infringement problems especially if you're using the domain in the same industry as the trademark owner. There's more general info here.

Also, as chandan mentions above, it's important to know whether or not it's a generic word you're talking about. As a general rule, generic terms can't be trademarked - however there are exceptions such as when the generic word acquires a secondary meaning.

I hope the above helps.