As the merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar approaches, two tech enthusiasts have made headlines regarding domain names associated with the companies. One individual recently captured attention by acquiring the domain "JioHotstar" and subsequently demanded that Reliance fully fund his college education in exchange for its use.
In a separate incident, Amit Bhawani shared his experience of receiving a legal notice from Reliance after he registered the domains "reliancejio.com" and "riljio.com" back in 2012, three years prior to the official announcement of Jio. Bhawani revealed his motivation for acquiring these domains was based on a rumour suggesting that "Jio" would be a new brand from Reliance.
"I thought it might be a good investment, so I took the chance and registered those domains," he explained in a series of posts on X. However, his luck changed in 2014 when he received a legal notice from Reliance's legal team, claiming that he was infringing on their trademark rights. Acknowledging that the company officially owned the trademark, Bhawani decided not to contest the issue, especially given his busy professional commitments.
Although he initially asked for $25,000 (around ₹21 lakh) for the domains, Reliance's response was a firm legal notice. "They had the upper hand, and I realised it wasn’t worth the fight," he admitted, ultimately handing over the domains without further dispute.
Meanwhile, the domain "JioHotstar" has been linked to a message from another tech enthusiast based in Delhi. This individual assumed that if Reliance were to acquire Hotstar, they would likely rebrand it as JioHotstar.com. Reflecting on Jio's previous acquisition of the music streaming service Saavn, he noted how it was rebranded to JioSaavn.
The Delhi techie expressed excitement when he discovered the domain was available, seeing it as a potential opportunity to fund his dream of studying at Cambridge University. He had previously been selected for the Cambridge University Accelerate programme but could not attend due to financial constraints. "My goal was simple: if I could sell the domain, I might finally be able to pursue my dream of studying at Cambridge," he stated.