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Nishan Bombs Bid for Nishan.com: Page 3 of 3

Another tactic employed by Nishan was to claim that the word "nishan" comes from the ancient Urdu language and means "mark, sign, signal, emblem, target, scar or trace," and that the term has "no known meaning in any other 'common' language." Bindra and Goldberg disputed this, saying "nishan" has meanings in Pakistani, Punjabi, Chinese, Turkish, and Armenian, and that it is, variously, the name of a Bollywood movie, an Indian political party, and a common boys’ name.

"It was an insulting claim they were trying to make," says Goldberg, who presented Bindra's case to the WIPO arbitration panel. "The ironic thing is, there were all these people in California calling her up and telling her that she made it up... I was trying to restore her faith in Americans."

Judging by the image of the Kathakali dancer now posted on Bindra's nishan.com site -- dressed in a costume of the traditional southern Indian dance theater -- the last laugh in this indecorous disagreement is on Nishan Systems.

Figure 1:

— Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch