Delhi High Court Grants Interim Relief To 'Upstox' Against Trademark, Copyright Infringement By Unknown Entities

The plaintiff–RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd said that it along with its group companies owns and operates UPSTOX where investors carry out trading activity in the stock market and also investment and financial activities. The plaintiff claimed that these activities are regulated by regulatory authorities such as Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). RKSV submitted that it has consistently invested in marketing, branding, and strategic initiatives to build recognition and trust for the Upstox brand. It states it has more than 1 crore customers and has gained a strong market reputation.

It alleged infringement of its registered 'UPSTOX' trademarks and word marks and action of passing off along with copyright infringement by unknown defendants (John Does/defendant no. 1). RKSV states that for it has been receiving complaints that several domain names, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and Telegram groups have been impersonating the company and that they have duped money from several clients and users by misusing its brand, logo, word mark and the copyright.

The plaintiff alleged that unknown defendants have registered various infringing domain names and is operating fake and fraudulent websites, WhatsApp and telegram groups in the name of RKSV with an intention to defraud unsuspecting customers by luring them for various incentives regarding the stocks, IPOs, etc. The infringing domains are registered with the domain name registrars, Gname, BIZCN and JUMING (defendant nos. 2 to 4).

Taking note of the various documents pointed to by the plaintiff, wherein its mark has been allegedly used by the defendants in an unauthorized manner, "in order to dupe and fraud the people", Justice Mini Pushkarna in her order said:

"In view of the above circumstances, the plaintiff has demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and in case no ex-parte ad-interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff will suffer an irreparable loss. Further, the balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants".

The plaintiff also alleged that the unknown defendants have been infringing its trademark and copyright a sole motive to defraud the company and its customers and to cause a damage to its goodwill.It also said that the infringement also concerns the security and privacy of its domain name, trade name and logo.

The court thereafter, till the next date of hearing, restrained the unknown defendant from infringing the plaintiff's "UPSTOX trademarks, word marks or any other deceptively marks" including its "domain names, websites, social media handles names, hashtags, email addresses, bank accounts or any business papers".

It also restrained the unknown defendants from reproducing or publishing plaintiffs' copyrighted photographs of the UPSTOX Brand.

It further directed the domain name registrars (defendant nos. 2 to 4) to suspend the domain names of the unknown defendant and further to disclose details including KYC documents and payment details of the registrant of the infringing domain names.

It also directed several banks including SBI, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Maharashtra (defendant nos. 5 to 18) to freeze the bank accounts of the unknown defendant and to disclose the KYC documents and bank statements of the owners and beneficiaries.

It further directed Telegram to suspend all the profiles/groups and channels related to the unknown defendant.

The Court issued notice to the defendants in the interim application and kept the matter for hearing on May 20, 2025. It also issued summons in the main lawsuit.

Case title: MS RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd. Upstox vs. John Does And Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1392

(CS(COMM) 1215/2024, I.A. 49976/2024)

Counsels for Plaintiff: Senior advocate Balbir Singh, with advocates M. P. Devnath, Abhishek Anand, Rahul Kumar, Karan Sachdev and Monica Benjamin