A division bench of Delhi High Court on Thursday (December 14) removed travel tech major MakeMyTrip’s injunction on Google and Booking.com to use registered trademarks as ‘keywords’ on the Google Ads Programme.
“Prima facie, we are unable to accept that MMT can claim any such right on the basis of its rights under the Trademark Act,” the order said.
The court also said that considering Booking.com is also a well-known platform offering travel services, an internet user is unlikely to be misled in any manner.
For the uninitiated, MakeMyTrip filed a complaint against Google and Booking.com because whenever a user searches for MakeMyTrip on Google, the first name that comes is of its competitor Booking.com.
MakeMyTrip issued a notice to Booking.com for the first time in 2019 to cease bidding on the keyword ‘makemytrip’ through the Google Ads Programme. Following this, another cease-and-desist notice was issued to Booking.com in August 2020 for the same.
The traveltech startup then filed a copyright infringement case against Booking.com and Google, alleging that the former had been illegally bidding on the trademarks associated with MakeMyTrip in Google Ads, which resulted in traffic and business being diverted to Booking.com from MakeMyTrip.
In April 2022, a single-judge bench of Justice Prathibha M. Singh deemed the use of MakeMyTrip’s trademark and its variations on Google Ads a passing off and ordered the search engine major to stop offering it as a keyword for bidding.
“In view of the facts, orders and legal position as discussed above, this court is prima facie of the opinion that the use of the plaintiff’s registered mark ‘MakeMyTrip’ on the Google Ads Programme as a keyword would amount to trademark infringement,” the court said.
However, in a recent decision taken by the High Court, this injunction is now removed. The bench held that “there was nothing illegal in Google using the trademarks as keywords for display of advertisements if it did not result in any confusion or mislead internet users to believe that sponsored links or ads displayed were associated with the proprietors of the trademarks.”
Last month, the Delhi High Court also issued a restraining order against Dialmytrip, prohibiting the use of its name in connection with tours, travel, hospitality, and related services. This legal restriction follows a case initiated by MakeMyTrip, an online travel company, seeking an injunction against Dialmytrip to prevent the use of the name ‘Dialmytrip’ and the domain names ‘www.dialmytrip.com’ and ‘www.dmtgroup.in‘.
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