The web search giant Google has legally won the domain name – 'googblog.com' – from a seventeen-year-old Gujarat school boy. Google has won the cybersquatting case against Herit Shah of Surendranagar (Gujarat) at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which ordered Shah to transfer the domain ownership to Google.

The domain name 'googblog.com' was registered in the name of Herit Shah. Google raised objections on the domain name, as it is confusingly similar to the company’s trademark; moreover ‘goog’ is the Google’s stock sticker at the NASDAQ. The domain name became the real subject of dispute between Google and Shah, and consequently, Google moved to WIPO and challenged the domain name registered by Shah.

Ordering the transfer of the domain name to Google, the Geneva-based WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center decided the case in the favour of Google. According to WIPO, Shah registered the domain name in September 25, 2008, and Google filed the complaint against Shah on March 26, 2009. On May 2, 2009, Shah admitted before the WIPO panel that the domain name was registered in bad faith and it was an “infringement of intellectual property”. "I really did very unfair to Google. I sincerely apologise to Google for infringement, misuse of their intellectual property ('googblog.com)," Shah said before the panel.

The student of the C U Shah High School, who has cleared Class XII (general steam) examinations told on Thursday that he bought the disputed domain name on September 25, 2008, and he started posting blogs on computers, multimedia and electronic gadgets on it. The son of a bank clerk, Shah revealed that in January, he received a letter from a Gurgaon-based law-firm, Ranjan Narula Associates on behalf of Google, saying that he should handover the domain name to Google under the IPR norms. He told that in his reply to the letter he defended his case, and later Google filed the lawsuit against him at WIPO. Last week, he got an email from WIPO ordering him to transfer the domain name to Google. Shah told that he has already started the process to transfer the ownership of the domain name.     

Cybersquatting, also known as domain squatting, is the activity of registering, trafficking, or using a domain name in bad faith with an intention to gain profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. Cybersquatting is an illegal activity. The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) is a specialized UN agency for the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.