Domain squatters threat to .in

February 2005

When the government gave its nod to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to start registering '.in' domains, it had obviously not foreseen the kind of rush there could be to acquire the latest, and the hippest, in Indian domain addresses.

But just two days prior to the '.in' domains being thrown open to public at large, a handful of registrars and sub-registrars are believed to have gone ahead and pre-booked a large number of generic domain names.

Industry experts also point to the possibility that a large number of '.in' domains belonging to known organizations and brands may also have been pre-booked by unscrupulous people in a bid to make a fast buck.

This has raised fears of large-scale misuse and could lead to a number of litigations in the coming months – a prospect that the country's cyber and trademark lawyers would be salivating at.