MUMBAI, MARCH 28: Nearly a month after the bitter domain name dispute cropped up between ICICI Ltd and Investsmart India Ltd over the use of investmartindia.com, both parties are finally close to reaching a settlement. Top level sources told The Indian Express that an agreement was likely to be finalised as early as tommorrow unless there was a last minute hitch in the discussions. However, there were conflicting reports about the exact nature of the agreement. Sources close to ICICI indicated that Investsmart India may withdraw its appeal filed in Bombay High Court, on Wednesday. "Investsmart India made a request to ICICI, and ICICI has indicated its willingness to accede to this request in the interest of maintaining institutional harmony," said the source, "Since ICICI has indicated its willingness to accede to the request, my understanding is that the appeal will be withdrawn". "The expectation is that a joint settlement could be finalised tommorrow," confirmed another source. However, there are chances that it could also drag on beyond Wednesday because of certain issues, the source added. Both ICICI and Investmart India were favourably disposed towards an out of court settlement and averse to long legal battle. Discussions reportedly involving the transfer of rights of investmartindia.com to Investsmart India started around mid-March. Investsmart India had sued ICICI Ltd for registering a website with a domain name similar to its website, investsmartindia.com. The Bombay High Court had turned down the plea by Investsmart India to grant an interim injunction against ICICI using the domain name under dispute. Investsmart (a subsidiary of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services) and ICICI were among the first to the launch online trading at their websites, investsmartindia.com and ICICIdirect.com, respectively. The business is expected to boom and nearly all top brokerages are planning similar initiatives. In United States, one in every four trades is executed over the internet. By December 2000, it is expected India will have at least 25 online trading service providers.
