GrabTaxi Holdings, the parent company of ride-hailing firm Grab, has been sued over a domain name dispute by a Singapore-based company.
The lawsuit was over an alleged agreement that the two companies had over the Indonesian Internet domain name, “grab.co.id”.
A report by Todayonline said that GrabTaxi Holdings allegedly agreed in July 2017 to acquire the domain name for US$250,000 (about S$338,000) from 3 Corporate Services
However, later in September that year, GrabTaxi Holdings reportedly refused to honour the agreement. The business management consultancy firm is now seeking losses and damages.
The civil suit was filed in July last year, according to the report.
GrabTaxi Holdings’ lawyers from Niru & Co LLC has accused 3 Corporate Services of engaging in cyber-squatting.
It is the practice of registering names as Internet domains – particularly those of well-known companies or brands – in the hopes of reselling them at a profit. GrabTaxi Holdings said that 3 Corporate Services were seeking to benefit from a domain name that is “identical or confusingly similar to a name, trademark or service mark” belonging to Grab.
The ride-hailing firm also claimed that 3 Corporate Services tried to sell more “Grab” domain names for the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam – an accusation 3 Corporate Services denied. It in turn claimed that it was GrabTaxi Holdings which tried to obtain the “Grab” domain names for these three countries from it
Grab has a presence in these countries and several others in the Southeast-Asia region.
In alleging that 3 Corporate Services are cyber-squatters, GrabTaxi Holdings said that the company sought to benefit from a domain name that is “identical or confusingly similar to a name, trademark or service mark” belonging to Grab.
The trial for the civil suit will take place over three days in June this year.