Use Of Competitor's Trademark As Keyword For Promoting Business On Search Engines/ App Store Violates Rights Of Trademark Owner: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that the use of keywords for promoting a business using competitor's trademark would be violative of the rights of the trademark owner. The Plaintiff was aggrieved by the use of the marks 'A23' and 'Ace2three' as 'keywords' by the Defendant, Tictok Skill Games Private Limited, on the Apple Application Store. It was argued that in the said case, the Court had granted an injunction restraining the Plaintiff from using the mark or name 'WinZO'/'WinZO Games' or its variants on its website and web "Considering the history of litigation between the parties as also the order in MakeMyTrip, the invisible use of the Plaintiff's mark as an 'adword' or 'keyword' on any online platforms by the Defendant would be violative of the Plaintiff's rights in the marks," the Court observed. Accordingly, it was directed that the Defendant shall abide by the said stand and not use the marks 'A23' and 'Ace2three' or any other variants/formative mark thereof as an adword, keyword, meta tag, or domain name, with or without space on any of the online search engines or application-based search platforms including Apple Application Store etc.