Trademark lawsuit: Delhi HC rules in favour of Google, awards Rs 10 lakh damages
New Delhi, April 4: Delhi High Court has ordered consultancy firm Google Enterprises Pvt Ltd and its associated entities to pay Rs 10 lakh in damages to tech behemoth Google LLC for misusing its trademark.
The High Court ruled in favour of Google LLC on its lawsuit to permanently restrain the defendants from infringing its trademark and observed that the defendants used the “Google” mark without due authorisation and engaged in “deception and trickery” as they “misrepresented to the public” that they were associated with Google India and had the modus operandi to dupe them.
Justice Sanjeev Narula further added that the plaintiff company has valid and subsisting registrations for the “Google” mark and its variations and this has been declared a well-known mark with a worldwide reputation due to its broad use and multiple variations.
Google LLC is certainly entitled to statutory protection and an injunction for infringement, and in addition to the Rs 10 lakh in damages, the court ruled that it is also entitled to actual costs under the Commercial Courts Act and the Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018 read with the IPD Rules on the basis of a "bill of costs."
“The present suit is accordingly decreed in favour of the plaintiff… damages of INR 10,00,000/- are awarded in favour of plaintiff, payable jointly and severally by defendants No. 1, 2 and 3 to plaintiff,” the court ordered.
The court also ordered the DoT to issue orders to all internet service providers and telecom service providers to ban access to the website hosted on a domain name in violation of the “Google” mark.
Also Read | Coal scam: BJP releases Episode 3 of ‘Congress Files, attacks UPA Govt
- With inputs from agencies
