Here is a chicken and egg question: Which came first, Tata – the Indian business conglomerate or tata – the synonym for good bye? Personally speaking, it doesn’t matter. When my friend says tata as he leaves my home, I’ve not stopped to wonder why he is uttering Tata’s name and not Ambani’s. That’s because, to me, Tata the company and tata, the good bye word are entirely different.
But that is not what Tata Sons think. A good three years after MakeMyTrip.com launched an online travel community and called it OkTataByeBye.com, Tata Sons finally realized that there is a ‘tata’ in the name which badly hurts their image. In their words, the name was registered “to misappropriate the reputation associated with the Complainant’s well-known and famous trademark TATA.”
The case in this regard was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and after close to four months of hearing, WIPO has ruled in favour of the Tatas. It is not surprising that WIPO has ruled in Tata’s favour, but the question to be asked is what is with the timing of this allegation? MakeMyTrip is one of the leaders in the online travel segment and it is a shame if the authorities in Tata Sons hadn’t known the existence of OkTataByeBye.com for so long. If they had known about it, why is the case being filed now. All I can speculate is that Tata is probably eyeing an entry in this segment pretty soon.
Anyway, all is not over for MakeMyTrip as yet. The company shall be approaching the Delhi High Court soon and I hope sanity prevails. What do you guys think? Is Tata right in disputing the usage of their name in OkTataByeBye.com? Tell us in the comments.
P.S. : To answer the question asked in the beginning, the good bye word came first. In 1823. Yes, I know I have no life 
When I was a kid, I used to wonder why Tata was chosen as the name of a company .. tata means bye.
Also, I used to think that when a truck overtakes you, he wants to say “tata” to you after leaving you behind so he painted it on the back of the truck..
Tata better catch hold of Bollywood movie producers, there are far more tata jokes there, which “badly hurt” their image.
This situation sounds a bit like lawsuits in the US.
These are called as annoying or frivolous lawsuits.
And for TaTa to do something like this simply shows that the Tata’s just wanted some action in their boring lives. Makemytrip just became a scapegoat to it.
This is ridiculous. TATA should have used their money and time elsewhere better. & that’s a free publicity to OKTataByebye.
PS: I was not aware of this travel community. Although I’ve used MakeMyTrip plenty of times.
I guess Tata is always right
they r good ppl…well atleast better than the others ! im sure theres more to this lawsuit
Although, Ok Tata ByeBye is a generic term.
Here are some interesting Information.
TATA had registered OKTATA.co.in back in 2002
http://whois.domaintools.com/oktata.co.in
They also own OKTATA.in
MakemyTrip registered OKTATABYEBYE.com in June of 2005 .
MMT registered both .co.in and .in version in 2006 .
MakeMyTrip created OKTTBB as a SEO site
If you search for TATA Hotel in google India (pages from India) OKTTBB appears as one of the top 5 Sites along with TATA groups Ginger Hotel and TAJ Hotel
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=tata+hotel&meta=cr%3DcountryIN&aq=f&oq=
Mr. Venkat , have you ever tried opening http://www.oktata.in , the website does not exist. If TATA SONS think they are so famous in masses why not launch http://www.tatatravels.com if they are targeting travel business which i think is there motive. Has TATA been so possesive about the domain name they would have build a site oktata.in about 8 years back , since they have not done there claim is wrong.
Interesting perspective there Ravi. If Tata has indeed been protective of the OkTata domain, I do now feel probably they deserve to fight this case. But why after 3 years? I still wonder why!
If Tata’s has registered the domain name ‘oktata.in or oktata.co.in’ then they should also expect a law suite because ‘OK” is a brand of soap from HLL I think. Then NDTV should get a law suite by delhi govt or cleartrip should get a law suite from the brand ‘clearsil’ or ‘clinic all clear’. Tata’s has made it a joke. I had a respect for Tata’s for their approach till now but I have to rethink now on..!
Given the state and condition of our trucks here in India , if TATA’s have such a problem with the name being used , they should haul up every truck driver or union and get them to remove the name from their vehicles as well….. after all i am sure it would not be too long ago for anyone to have noticed the Tata name on the back of a truck covered partly in garbage , or dirt – hows that for brand image?
I think Ravi is making a good point here. In addition to the point of oktata.in domain, search engine optimization point also seems valid. If OKTTBB is appearing in the top 5 search results, then makemytrip seems to have leveraged the word ‘tata’ in their brand name.
You can call it bad SEO by TATA’s or good work by makemytrip but it surely looks like a conflict.
Well TATA is a well known figure nationally and internationally,bieng involved in such issues is ridiculous.
A company having name as oktatabyebye.com does not copy any of the TATA trademarks.