Delhi High Court Passes John Doe Order In Favour Of Indian Hotels Company Over Use Of 'Ginger' Trademark By 'Fraudulent Websites'

The Delhi High Court has passed a John Doe order in favour of Indian Hotels Company, part of the TATA group of companies, by restraining various “unknown fraudulent websites” using its registered trademark “Ginger” unauthorisedly for hotel bookings.

Justice Sanjeev Narula issued a summons in the trademark infringement suit filed by the Indian Hotels Company against various unknown persons who contact unwary customers through their websites.

Granting an ex ex-parte ad interim injunction, the court ordered:

“Defendant No. 1 and/or any other person acting for/on their behalf, are restrained from deploying or using in any manner, the registered trademarks of the Plaintiff, being “GINGER”…. or any other mark which is deceptively similar to the Plaintiff's trademarks, amounting to infringement or passing off.”

The court further restrained the unknown entities from using original copyrighted photographs of the GINGER Hotel properties, by reproducing or publishing them in any manner.

The suit alleged that last month, the Indian Hotels Company received several complaints of fraud perpetuated across different cities related to the impugned websites wherein reservation services for accommodations at its hotels were offered to customers. It was submitted that the websites were not authorised to offer reservation or booking services by the plaintiff company.

The court observed the conduct of the defendant entities was deliberate, and fraudulent and aimed to unjustly and wrongfully gain by deceiving the general public as to the authenticity of the services offered by them.

“Such actions by Defendant No. 1 amounts to tarnishment of Plaintiff's long-standing and well-established goodwill and reputation in its brand and trademarks,” the court said.

Accordingly, Justice Narula directed that the access to the domain names of the impugned websites be suspended. The court also ordered blocking of the websites.

It further directed Axis Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank to freeze or suspend operations of the respective bank accounts associated with the UPI IDs.

Counsel for Plaintiff: Ms. Shwetasree Majumdar, Mr. Prithvi Singh, Mr. Rohan Krishna Seth and Ms. Aishwarya Debarshni, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, CGSC with Mr. Srish Kumar Mishra and Mr. Alexander Mathai Paikaday, Advocates for D-8 & 9

Title: THE INDIAN HOTELS COMPANY LIMITED v. JOHN DOE AND OTHERS

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 573

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