Delhi High Court Passes John Doe Order To Protect Trademark Of Master Capital Services, Asks Meta To Block WhatsApp Accounts Misusing Mark

The Court also directed Meta, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications to block WhatsApp accounts of groups, which are claiming association with Master Capital and asking public to invest funds.

Master Capital Services Limited (plaintiff no. 1) offers secondary market broking services to its retail customers and is the stock broking arm of the Master Trust Group.

Master Capital along with its Director (plaintiffs) sought a permanent injunction against trademark infringement and passing off of the trademark 'Master Trust.

The plaintiffs alleged that a set of unidentified individuals (defendant no.1 collectively) have formed groups on various apps like WhatsApp and are misusing the trademark 'master trust'. It is claimed that these groups are constantly engaging the public to invest their money through fake links.

Master Capital stated that it received around 17 complaints from individuals about the fraudulent transactions undertaken by a few WhatsApp groups using its trademark and that they incurred losses due to fraud committed by the agents and entities claiming to have an association with plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs also stated that these groups used pictures of Master Capital's Director (plaintiff no.2) to show the association with Master Group.

Taking into account the allegations, Justice Mini Pushkarna was of the view that the mala fide intentions of unknown individuals was clear as they engaged in financial embezzlement, by riding on the reputation of plaintiffs.

“The mala fide intention of defendant no.1 is blatantly clear as it can be seen that defendant no.1 continue to undertake the activities in the nature of financial embezzlement riding on the reputation of plaintiffs. Moreover, over the period of time, the defendant no.1 continues to deceive a larger public by way of its services. In addition, it is clear that its services arc deficient in nature and have led to influx of many grievances from many individuals to the plaintiffs, which plaintiffs continue to address till date.”

The Court stated that the plaintiffs made out a prima facie case for grant of permanent injunction. It stated that if an ex-parte ad interim injunction is not granted, it would cause irreparable loss to them.

The Court thus restrained the unidentified individuals, its proprietors, directors, partners or agents from using the trademark 'Mastertrust' or any deceptively similar mark. It further restrained the impersonation of identity or name of plaintiff no.2 on any social media platforms, website, newspapers or business and marketing materials.

The Court directed Meta Platforms Inc., the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications (defendant nos. 2 to 4) to take necessary actions to block the WhatsApp accounts of these groups. It stated that in case the plaintiff come across any such WhatsApp groups, they can communicate it to the Meta, which shall then take appropriate actions to block such accounts.

It further directed HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank (defendant nos. 7 and 8) to permanently freeze the unknown persons' bank accounts.

Case title: Master Capital Services Limited & Anr. vs. John Doe & Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1109

Counsel for Plaintiffs:Singhania & Co.represented by Mr. Rohit Jain, Managing Partner, Ms. Neha Khanduri, Counsel, and Ms. Komal Sharma, Associate. Singhania & Co. briefed Ms. Swathi Sukumar, assisted by her team including Mr. Naveen Nagarjuna and Mr. Ritik Raghuwanshi.