BCCI Gets Restraining Order Against Online Fantasy Cricket League, Rediff; Why Rediff?
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has got an interim injunction from the Madras High Court, restraining Sandeep Goel (of the Indian Fantasy League) and Rediff.com from displaying or using the domain name/title indianfantasyleague.com or indianfantasyleague and logo or any other domain name or trademark similar to that of the Indian Premier League, reports the Hindu. The BCCI has sought damages of Rs. 10 lakh.
Readers will remember that contentSutra had reported earlier about the BCCI and Multi Screen Media (SET) planning a fantasy league in India. Looks like they forgot to register the domain - which was registered by Sandeep Goel for the IFL. I was under the impression that the Indian Fantasy League being developed by “a Canadian company” had referred to the facebook based game from LiveCurrent Media. The Indian Fantasy League against which the petition was filed has already attracted sponsorship from Airtel and ColorPlus, and prizes on offer include 5 Ford Fiesta cars, 10 Videocon TVs, Panasonic ACs, Acer Laptops and Desktops etc. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the case comes up for hearing next on June 10th.
But why is Rediff to blame? They appear to have been unnecessarily caught up in this controversy - we’ve received a clarification from them stating that they merely provided domain registration services as a part of Rediff Business Solutions, and have no control over the domains registered or allocated - that lies with the Central Registrar. They’ll be filing a response regarding this case, and believe (I think rightly so) that they can’t be held liable for a case essentially against Sandeep Goel for indianfantasyleague.com. At the same time, wire agency PTI appears to have added to the confusion - their report claims that Sandeep Goel is the owner of Rediff.com (NSDQ: REDF).
Posted In: Entertainment, Gaming, Sports, Companies, Rediff
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Comments (14)
May 28, 2008 10:39 AM
On what basis can the BCCI lay claim to the name Indian Fantasy League? Just because they want it? Ridiculous
May 28, 2008 11:13 AM
hilarious.. maybe they should also sue Airtel and BSNL since they carry traffic to that domain.
May 29, 2008 12:22 AM
IPL itself is a blatant rip-off from ICL and EPL. And those jokers led by Modi want to sue someone else on that premise. I see this as a good opening for Subhash Chandra to sue them and claim damages for someone who stole his format and his name!
Was checking out IFL site - they are already advertising the next event - don’t think its meant to be a IPL mimicry site…
May 29, 2008 12:26 AM
And what happened to hungama’s exclusive IPL rights ? Have not seen any documentry proof to it so far. Is the cricket rights on net and mobile possible ... I do not think they made any money in their so much publicised web2mobile initiative for IPL. Any comments - VASGUY ?
May 29, 2008 12:27 AM
Manikaran: would prefer it if you don’t words like “jokers” - we’ll have to remove anything defamatory.
I think this is probably a trademark issue, not a “copy of a format” issue. The IFL logo can be considered to be similar (see the two above), and like we’ve mentioned - the BCCI was planning a fantasy league. Maybe they registered a co/entity, and this is in violation.
We don’t have the exact details, but this appears to be not about a format, but about a trademark
May 29, 2008 5:36 AM
But Nikhil, the logos are not similar in the least bit. IPL man looks more like he is doing a golf swing (even though I suspect it is a back foot punch) while the IFL guy is a left handed square cut almost on one knee. If you have a cricket game, you pretty much will have a batsman and ball in the logo in some form. Won’t you?
May 29, 2008 11:57 AM
What if they changed the name and logo?
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Oct 10, 2008 10:26 PM
Is the cricket rights on net and mobile possible ... I do not think they made any money in their so much publicised web2mobile initiative for IPL
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Oct 19, 2008 10:43 PM
The Indian Fantasy League against which the petition was filed has already attracted sponsorship from Airtel and ColorPlus, and prizes on offer include 5 Ford Fiesta cars, 10 Videocon TVs, Panasonic ACs, Acer Laptops and Desktops etc.
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Oct 19, 2008 10:48 PM
They’ll be filing a response regarding this case, and believe (I think rightly so) that they can’t be held liable for a case essentially against Sandeep Goel for indianfantasyleague.com.