Delhi High Court directs suspension of HappyEasyGo advertising account on Google Ads Programme in MakeMyTrip trademark infringement suit

Pursuant to the trademark infringement suit preferred by MakeMyTrip, the Delhi High Court has directed Google to suspend the advertising account of HappyEasyGo on the Google Ads Programme (MakeMyTrip vs HappyEasyGo). .A single-judge Bench of Justice Jayant Nath also issued directions for service of bailable warrants against directors, Rajesh Kumar Dathik and Neelam Rani, in order to secure their presence before the Court on the next date of hearing. ."Issue bailable warrants for personal presence of contemnors No.2 and 3, namely, Rajesh Kumar Dathik and Neelam Rani on a surety of Rs.50,000/- each before this court on the next date of hearing...Accordingly, defendants No.2 and 3 are directed to suspend the advertising account of defendant No.1 on the Google Ads Programme," the Court said. .MakeMyTrip (plaintiff) had moved the High Court in 2018 after it discovered that the website of HappyGoEasy (defendant), who also engaged in the business of online booking and selling of air tickets, was appearing in the sponsored links section of the search engine when search was conducted for the mark “makemytrip”. .It was added that while the defendant was listed as the first sponsored link, the plaintiff was listed below..The plaintiff inter alia submitted that the defendant was engaging in illegal activities with mala fide intent of diverting business from the plaintiff‟s website to its own website by riding on the reputation and goodwill associated with the plaintiff's MakeMyTrip marks..In May 2018, the Court opined that there was prima facie case of infringement and passing off..The Court accordingly passed an interim order and restrained the defendant from bidding for, adopting and using plaintiff's MakeMyTrip word Mark, or any deceptive variant thereof, whether with the inclusion of spaces or other special characters in the trademark MakeMyTrip, as an Ad Word through the Ad Word Program of Google or any other ad word/key word program in any manner whatsoever..Recently, MakeMyTrip told the Court that in spite of the interim order, the defendant made a bid and adopted the plaintiff’s MakeMyTrip word mark as an Ad Word/Keyword through the Google Ads program of Google..The matter would be heard next on April 7. .The plaintiff was represented by Senior Advocate Amit Sibal along with advocates Mohit Goel, Sidhant Goel, Akshay Ajaykumar, Deepankar Mishra, Ambar Bhushan, Saksham Dhingra.Google was represented by advocate Neel Mason..[Read Order]