Delhi High Court grants relief to Just Dial in suit alleging data theft, trademark violation

The Delhi High Court recently granted ad-interim relief to search engine Just Dial in a suit alleging data theft, trademark and copyright infringement [Just Dial Limited v. M/s Local Search Solutions Private Limited]..Justice Pratibha M Singh held that if interim relief was not granted to Just Dial, it would suffer irreparable loss.“If the relief sought is not granted, irreparable loss would be caused as it would not only jeopardise the plaintiff’s rights but also the rights of its various clients, customers and also the general public who might make payments to avail the services of defendant,” the Court noted..The search engine contended that the defendant company, M/s Local Search Solutions Private Limited, had “verbatim lifted” thousands of its listings, source data code, corporate numbers and other proprietary data.The Court was informed by Senior Counsel Dayan Krishnan, representing Just Dial, that his client a few months ago realised that the defendant company was operating its website www.nicelocal.in by copying large volumes of data from Just Dial's website..His submissions were supported by various illustrations of data being lifted en bloc, demonstrated by the clear use of the "Jd logo” watermark besides the appearance of identical source codes, dummy listings, phone numbers, and complete customer reviews from Just Dial’s website on the defendant's website.It was also contended that the defendants collected money through credit cards without issuing invoices. After Just Dial made a trap transaction on the website while posing as a customer, it found that the credit card used for the same was put on auto-debit mode, resulting in amounts being deducted from the account in January 2022 without any order being placed at all. Just Dial, therefore, pointed out that large sums of money from gullible customers might have been taken in this manner..For Justice Singh, it was clear that a large number of innocent people could have been duped by the defendants, who had continued to operate their website.“In view of the circumstances of the case and the interest of the general public as well, the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction. The balance of convenience lies in the favour of the plaintiff,” held the Court..The defendants were restrained from providing or advertising any goods or services on their website or utilising the data belonging to Just Dial till the next date of hearing. They were also restrained from collecting any payments.“Defendants 3 and 4 — Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are directed to issue instructions within 48 hours to all the ISps to block the website www.nicelocal.in and to suspend the services of the said website. The said ISps shall take immediate steps to block the website www.nicelocal.in," the order directed further..Among a few other directions, the local police where Just Dial had registered a criminal complaint was ordered to submit a status report on the investigation.The matter will be heard again on August 25..Along with Krishnan, Advocates Aditya Gupta, Abhilasha Nautiyal, Sauhard Alung, S Seth and Bandan Karkidholy represented Just Dial.Advocate Kirtiman Singh appeared for the Central government and Advocate Kunjala Bhardwaj represented the Union ministries..[Read Order]