Gmail.co.in Now Belongs to Google

An arbitrator appointed by National Internet Exchange of India made a Chinese national transfer the domain name gmail.co.in to its rightful owner - Google.

Google Inc, which launched its website ‘gmail’ in April 2004 worldwide, applied for the registration of the mark in India in 2005. The company had filed a complaint before NIXI seeking transfer of domain name ‘gmail.co.in’ when it came to know that the address was registered by a Chinese national.

The arbitrator observed that Zhaoyang registered a company “Gmail Ltd” only after the complaint was filed by Google and the domain name “gmail.co.in” was transfered to the company one day later.

Imposing a cost of Rs 50,000 on the Chinese company, the arbitrator said: “The company has failed to furnish any explanation about the adoption of an identical mark. All these indicate that a disputed domain name is got registered and used by respondent in bad faith in respect of the general commercial business activities.”

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