Tata says `ta-ta' to cybersquatters
The Asian Age — October 26, 2005

With the Tata Group going global, it appears that the company is pulling out all stops to protect itself from trademark infringement by cyber squatters. Cybersquatting is the act of registering a popular Internet address, usually the name of a well-known company, with the intent of selling the name to its rightful owner for a high price. Tata Sons senior vicepresident and finance and co. secretary, Mr F.N. Subedar, said, "After a brief lull, we were once again exposed to the menace of cyber squatting.

Prompt action at appropriate judicial forums have thwarted the attempts of the cyber squatters to usurp the internationally reputed well known Tata mark and made available these two domain names for our businesses, at the same time preventing gullible public from being misled by unauthorised use of our mark." The first of the two cases that Mr Subedar was referring to, took place in July this year when the Tata Group announced the possibility of a change in the corporate name of Tata Group's DTH Venture.

As soon as the announcement had been made, a cyber squatter, MIC/Syed Hussein, registered the domain name "tatasky.com" apparently for resale. Tata Sons Ltd, filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva.