Delhi High Courts allows ₹ 2 crore damages to Adobe, restrains cyber squatter from infringing its Trademark

In a significant order, the Delhi High Court recently ordered an "inveterate" cyber squatter to pay ₹ 2 crore damages to Adobe Inc for infringing it's trademarks associated with its brands, Photoshop and Adobe Spark [Adobe Inc vs Namase Patel]..Single-judge Justice C Hari Shankar in his order dated November 29, noted that the defendant have been infringing the trademarks of several international companies and also the fact that National Arbitration Forum and also the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has passed several orders against the defendant. "These orders clearly indicate that Defendant is an inveterate cyber squatter, whose main sphere of activities involves infringing the well-known domain names by using deceptively similar domain names and thereafter, indulging in further misuse and infringing activities," the Court observed. It, therefore, ordered him to pay the damages as sought by the plaintiff firm. "The plaintiff shall be entitled to the quantum of the damages claimed in the suit of ₹ 2 crores. These damages are intended to be deterrent in nature given the nature of activities of the Defendant and the fact that he stands recognised, even in foreign jurisdictions, as being an inveterate and habitual cyber-squatter and domain name infringer," the judge added. .The Bench was dealing with a plea filed by Adobe Inc seeking permanent injunction against the defendant from using domain names - www.Addobe.com and www.Adobee.com - which are deceptively similar to the plaintiff's www.adobe.com.The plaintiff claimed that the above domain names also have similar email IDs due to which, if a person by mistake misspells adobe.com in the email ID, the said email is received by the defendant. Most of these emails, the plaintiff claimed, are confidential. Further it was highlighted through a forensic report prepared by the plaintiff, that the defendant had configured his domain names - www.addobe.com and www.adobee.com, with plaintiff's brands such as 'Photoshop' and 'Adobe Spark.' .During the hearing, the Mumbai Police's Cyber Cell too submitted a report spelling out that it couldn't trace the defendant and his IP address showed his location in the United States. Taking note of the facts of the case, the Court passed an ex-parte order as the defendant wasn't available for the proceedings. "The defendant as well as his employees, servants, agents, representatives and others associated with him shall stand permanently restrained from registering any domain names which incorporate or otherwise use the plaintiff's trademark Adobe, Photoshop or Spark in a manner which would infringe the plaintiff's registered trademarks or would otherwise infringe the said trademark," the bench ordered. The Court even ordered the defendant's access to his two domain names, be blocked. "There shall also be a decree of permanent injunction restraining the Defendant from disclosing any confidential material received by him relating to the plaintiff to any third party," the bench added.With these observations, the bench disposed of the plea. .Advocates Shwetasree Majumder, Tanya Varma and Prithvi Gulati appeared for the plaintiff..[Read Judgment]