Delhi High Court awards ₹10 lakh damages to Google LLC after local firm "Google Enterprises" misuses its trademark

The Delhi High Court recently ordered a trading and consultancy firm named Google Enterprises to pay ₹10 lakh in damages to Google LLC for misusing its mark and misrepresenting its association with the American tech giant. .Justice Sanjeev Narula noted that the defendants misrepresented to the public that they were partners of Google India on the basis of which they also announced a fictitious Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) unit.“The modus operandi of Defendants was to dupe members of the public into believing they would get a desk job on depositing money with Defendant No. 1 and be employed with an entity supposedly associated with Plaintiff, as is indicated from the KPO unit’s brochure at Ex. PW1/11,” the court observed.The bench, therefore, awarded ₹10 lakh in favour of Google and also ordered the Department of Technology (DoT) to pass directions to the internet and telecom service providers to block access to the website hosted by the defendants.“Defendants are directed to hand over all printed matter, including stationery, brochures, bearing the mark/name “GOOGLE” to the authorized representative of the Plaintiff representative(s) for the purpose of destruction,” the Court said. .Google LLC approached the Court after it came across certain brochures and news articles in the year 2011 regarding a collaboration between Google India and Tata Communications for a joint venture named E-Kutir Technology & Extension Management (P) Ltd (Defendant No. 2).Kutir was stated to be a KPO unit. However, Google refuted the same.The Court was told that the marks used by the defendants on their websites were identical to Google's and the defendants even filed applications with the trademark registry for registration of those marks. .After considering the case and examining the marks used by the defendants, Justice Narula concluded that there has been dishonest use and the defendants were guilty of infringement and passing off.The judge further said that it was clear that defendants 1 to 3 were acting in collusion, insofar as the websites were concerned and continued to operate in complete disregard to the plaintiff’s rights and the interim injunction operating against them.Therefore, the court passed the order in Google’s favour and disposed of the plea..Advocates Tanya Varma and Coral Shah appeared for Google LLCNone appeared for the defendants..[Read Order]