Delhi High Court: Jayant Nath, J., addressed a matter wherein the domain names similar to the trade mark ‘BAJAJ FINANCE’ or ‘BAJAJ FINSERV’ were being used.
An application was filed under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 CPC seeking an ex-parte injunction to restrain defendants 1 to 5 and their employees, etc. acting for and on their behalf from using their respective domain names/websites for any purpose whatsoever.
Injunction was also sought to restrain defendants 1 to 5 and their employees from registering any domain names/websites which are identical or deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s trademarks and brand names ‘BAJAJ FINANCE’ or ‘BAJAJ FINSERV’ or domain names that have ‘BAJAJ’ as prefix and suffix in combination with any other words.
Plaintiff’s case was that it is the proprietor of ‘BAJAJ FINANCE’ trademarks and the exclusive licensee of ‘BAJAJ FINSERV’ trademarks and hence. It was claimed that the plaintiff retains the exclusive right to use the said trademarks and all individuals/entities/organizations/etc. are prohibited and prevented from using the same.
It was submitted that defendants 1 to 5 are were the registrants of the fake and unauthorised domain names and rogue websites which are using the mark identical or deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s trademarks/brand names ‘BAJAJ FINANCE’ or ‘BAJAJ FINSERV’ or domain names which have ‘BAJAJ’ as prefix or suffix in combination of other words.
Defendant 6 to 26 were the domain registrars who were in the business of selling/offering for registration of domain names.
Hence, it was manifested that the plaintiff was the registered proprietor of the trademarks ‘BAJAJ FINANCE’ and had rights in ‘BAJAJ FINSERV’. Therefore, use of domain names that were identical/deceptively similar to plaintiffs’ trademarks and brand names tantamounted to infringement of rights of plaintiff.
High Court restrained defendants 1 to 5 from using the above-stated trade marks/ name deceptively similar to them. Court added that defendants 6, 10, 14 and 21 may suspend the aforenoted domain names till the said websites are registered with the said domain names.
In view of the above discussion, notice was issued. [Bajaj Finance Ltd. v. Registrant of WWW.BAJAJ-FINSERVE.ORG, 2021 SCC OnLine Del 3058, decided on 18-05-2021]
Advocates before the Court:
For the Plaintiff: Mr.Abhishek Singh, Mr.J.Amal Anand, Ms.Aakanksha Uthaiah, Mr.Shivam Chaudhary and Ms. Kirtika Chhatwal, Advs.
For the Defendant: Through Mr. Moazzam Khan, Ms. Gowree Gokhale, Mr. Alipak Banerjee, Ms. Aparna Gaur and Ms. Aparimita Pratap for Defendant Nos. 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 17 and 22
Mr. Akhil Sibal, Sr.Adv. with Mr.Aditya Gupta, Ms. Aishwarya Kane, Ms. Deboshree Mukherjee and Ms. Shriya, Advs. for D-19
Mr. Ashok kumar Adv and Mr Ujjwal Goel Advs. for D-31/NIXI.
