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Yatra Online Private Limited vs Rajesh Kumar Dathik And Ors on 5 February, 2019

Author: Manmohan

Bench: Manmohan

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*     IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

+     CS(COMM) 60/2019

      YATRA ONLINE PRIVATE LIMITED      ..... Plaintiff
                   Through  Mr. Pravin Anand with Mr. Swantanu
                            Sahay, Mr. Aasish Somasi and
                            Ms. Imon Roy, Advocates

                          versus

      RAJESH KUMAR DATHIK AND ORS.                ..... Defendants
                  Through  None

      CORAM:
      HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANMOHAN

                    ORDER

% 05.02.2019 I.A. No. 1782/2019 Keeping in view the averments made in the application, plaintiff is exempted from filing the original/clear / translated and copies with proper margins of the documents at this stage.

Needless to say, this order is without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.

Accordingly, present application stands disposed of.

Present application has been filed seeking leave to file additional documents.

Keeping in view the averments in the application, the same is allowed and plaintiff is permitted to file additional documents within thirty days.

CS(COMM) 60/2019 Let the plaint be registered as a suit.

Issue summons in the suit to the defendants by all modes including dasti returnable for 11th March, 2019 before the Joint Registrar.

The summons to the defendants shall indicate that a written statement to the plaint shall be positively filed within four weeks of the receipt of the summons. Liberty is given to the plaintiff to file a replication within two weeks of the receipt of the advance copy of the written statement.

The parties shall file all original documents in support of their respective claims along with their respective pleadings. In case parties are placing reliance on a document which is not in their power and possession, its detail and source shall be mentioned in the list of reliance which shall be also filed with the pleadings.

Admission/denial of documents shall be filed on affidavit by the parties in accordance with the Delhi High Court Rules.

List the matter before Court on 15th March, 2019.

Issue notice to the defendants by all modes including dasti returnable for 11th March, 2019 before the Joint Registrar.

It is pertinent to mention that present suit has been filed for permanent injunction restraining infringement of Copyright, unfair competition rendition of account etc. In the plaint it is stated that the plaintiff company is engaged in the business of providing information on availability, pricing and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, railway and bus reservations, hotel reservations and holiday packages through its website www.yatra.com. It is stated that the plaintiff is one of the best known service providers of travel and travel booking services with approximately 19.6 million users visiting their website www.yatra.com., WAP site and the mobile application in December, 2018.

It is stated in the plaint that the plaintiff carries its operation primarily through its website www.yatra.com, which is visited by numerous users across the world. It is stated that the plaintiff‟s business depends on continuous introduction of new hotels and properties for domestic and international travels, along with details of such properties to enable the customers to make an informed decision.

It is averred in the plaint that the plaintiff surveys every listing on its website to incorporate unique features in its description. It is averred that such description is a result of several creative inputs and is a literary work. It is further averred that the plaintiff‟s literary work is created by employees of the plaintiff and third party contractors and therefore the work published on the plaintiff‟s website is literary work as defined under the Copyright Act, 1957.

It is stated that the plaintiff also makes substantial investments in the photograph and video shoots of the hotels to promote them on it‟s website. It stated that the plaintiff is the first owner of copyright in the photographs available on the plaintiff‟s website.

It is the case of the plaintiff that the total revenue generated by the plaintiff for the financial year 2016-2017 was INR 6,794,21,57,079/- and the plaintiff spent INR 415,05,00,000/- on its advertisement on promotion in the year 2017-2018 Learned counsel for the plaintiff states that in November, 2018, the plaintiff became aware that the defendants website www.happyeasygo.com, is using identical content as hosted on the plaintiff‟s website. He states that the plaintiff conducted inquiry into the activities of the defendant no.3 which revealed that, in order to lure and deceive the customers and divert the web traffic to the defendant‟s website, and to capitalise on the investments made by the plaintiff in its original literary and artistic work, the defendants are using the plaintiff‟s original literary work and photographs on their website. Screenshot of the plaintiff‟s and the defendants‟ website is reproduced hereinbelow:-

Learned counsel for the plaintiff states that the defendants have misappropriated the original literary work and photographs from the plaintiff‟s website www.yatra.com, without any permission or approval of the plaintiff and are misrepresenting the same as being their own photograph and literary work. He emphasises that the extent of infringement is massive as over 31,100 properties have been copied by the defendants. He further states that the defendants have also copied and misrepresented plaintiff‟s original coined terms and references like "YatraSMART" as "HappyeasygoSMART"

Keeping in view the aforesaid, this Court is of the view that there is a prima facie case in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants. The balance of convenience is also in favour of the plaintiff and an irreparable harm and injury would be caused to the plaintiff if an interim order as prayed for is not granted.

Consequently, till further orders, the defendants, their associate companies, subsidiaries, directors, wholesalers, distributors, partners or proprietors, as the case may be, their officers, servants and agents are restrained from publishing any literary, artistic, cinematographic or any other form of copyrightable work on their website www.happyeasygo.com which constitutes an infringement of any of plaintiff‟s literary, artistic, cinematographic or any other form of copyrightable work that is published on their website www.yatra.com.

Let the provisions of Order XXXIX Rule 3 CPC be complied within a week of this order.

Order Dasti under the signature of the Court master MANMOHAN, J FEBRUARY 05, 2019 rn