Signatureglobal (India) Limited vs Ashok Kumar & Ors on 12 November, 2025

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Delhi High Court - Orders

Signatureglobal (India) Limited vs Ashok Kumar & Ors on 12 November, 2025

                          $~35
                          *    IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
                          +    CS(COMM) 1209/2025
                               SIGNATUREGLOBAL (INDIA) LIMITED                 .....Plaintiff
                                             Through: Ms. Kripa Pandit, Mr. Prabhu Tandon,
                                                      Mr. Christopher Thomas and Mr.
                                                      Bhanu Gupta, Advocates.
                                                                  versus
                                    ASHOK KUMAR & ORS.                                                                     .....Defendants
                                                Through:

                                    CORAM:
                                    HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE TEJAS KARIA
                                                 ORDER

% 12.11.2025 I.A. No. 28083/2025(Exemption)

1. Exemption is allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

2. The Application stands disposed of.

I.A. No. 28081/2025(Exemption from pre-institution Mediation)

3. This is an Application filed by the Plaintiff seeking exemption from instituting pre-litigation Mediation under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 ("CC Act").

4. As the present matter contemplates urgent interim relief, in light of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Krithi, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1382, exemption from the requirement of pre-institution Mediation is granted.

5. The Application stands disposed of.

I.A. No. 28084/2025(Extension of time to file Court Fees)

6. The present Application has been filed by the Plaintiff under Section 149 read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 ("CPC"), CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 1 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

7. Considering the submissions made in the present Application, time of two weeks is granted to deposit the Court Fees.

8. The Application stands disposed of.

CS (COMM)1209/2025

9. Let the Plaint be registered as a Suit.

10. Issue Summons. Let the Summons be served to the Defendants through all permissible modes upon filing of the Process Fee.

11. The Summons shall state that the Written Statement(s) shall be filed by the Defendants within 30 days from the date of the receipt of Summons. Along with the Written Statement(s), the Defendants shall also file an Affidavit of Admission / Denial of the documents of the Plaintiff, without which the Written Statement(s) shall not be taken on record.

12. Liberty is granted to the Plaintiff to file Replication(s), if any, within 30 days from the receipt of the Written Statement(s). Along with the Replication(s) filed by the Plaintiff, an Affidavit of Admission / Denial of the documents of Defendants be filed by the Plaintiff, without which the Replication(s) shall not be taken on record.

13. In case any Party is placing reliance on a document, which is not in their power and possession, its details and source shall be mentioned in the list of reliance, which shall also be filed with the pleadings.

14. If any of the Parties wish to seek inspection of any documents, the same shall be sought and given within the prescribed timelines.

15. List before the learned Joint Registrar on 06.01.2026 for completion of service and pleadings.

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 2 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

16. The present Application has been filed on behalf of the Plaintiff under Order XI Rule 1(4) of the CPC as applicable to Commercial Suits under the CC Act, seeking leave to place on record additional documents.

17. The Plaintiff is permitted to file additional documents in accordance with the provisions of the CC Act and the Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018.

18. Accordingly, the Application stands disposed of. I.A. No. 28080/2025(U/O XXXIX Rule 1 & 2 of CPC)

19. Issue Notice. Notice be served through all permissible modes upon filing of the Process Fees.

20. The present Suit has been filed for permanent injunction and damages for infringement of copyright, infringement of trade mark and passing off and unfair competition under Section 20 of the CPC read with Section 27 and 29 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

21. The learned Counsel for the Plaintiff made the following submissions:

21.1 The Plaintiff is a developer in the mid-income housing segment within the Delhi-NCR region. The Plaintiff commenced its real estate operations in 2014 through its subsidiary, Signature Builders Private Limited.

21.2 The Plaintiff's services in the field of real estate development are recognized, and associated with its Trade Name and registered Mark 'SIGNATUREGLOBAL' / ' '.

("Subject Mark"). The Plaintiff's rights in the Subject Mark are CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 3 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 protected both under statutory law by the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and under common law arising from prior and consistent usage in commerce.

21.3 Members of the real estate industry, stakeholders, homebuyers, and the general public associate the Subject Mark exclusively with the Plaintiff's offerings in mid-income housing. Owing to extensive use, consistent project delivery, and public visibility through advertising, digital media, and government partnerships, the Subject Mark has acquired source-identifying character in the minds of the relevant purchasing public.

21.4 The project brochures of the Plaintiff are widely circulated both digitally and physically, ensuring high brand recall among customers. The Plaintiff prominently offers and advertises its real estate projects and related services under the Subject Mark through the Plaintiff's official website i.e., www.signatureglobal.in ("Plaintiff's Website") The Subject Mark forms an essential part of the Plaintiff's Website. The Plaintiff's Website hosts detailed information about the Plaintiff's residential and commercial developments, CSR activities, investor disclosures, contact channels and customer support services. The Plaintiff registered the domain name of the Plaintiff's Website on 08.01.2014 which continues to be valid and subsisting. The Plaintiff's Website receives substantial web traffic from prospective homebuyers, investors, and stakeholders seeking information about ongoing and upcoming projects. The Plaintiff carries out its formal communications through CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 4 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

21.5 The Plaintiff's Website is characterized by a distinctive and consistent visual identity that forms an essential part of the Plaintiff's overall brand presentation. The use of a green and white color scheme, along with modern architectural visuals in the background, projects a theme of luxury, sustainability, and forward-looking urban design. The Plaintiff's Website features the Subject Mark prominently at the top-left corner, which serves as a consistent brand identifier across all digital and print platforms. The images, photographs, and design elements featured on the Plaintiff's Website constitutes original artistic works, thereby qualifying for protection under Section 2(c) of the Copyright Act, 1957. These visual and structural components proprietary to the Plaintiff are consistently reproduced across the Plaintiff's project marketing and promotional materials. Any unauthorized imitation or replication of these features by third parties results in infringement of both the Plaintiff's statutory copyright and registered trade mark rights.

21.6 Defendant No. 1 has dishonestly adopted and subsumed the Subject Mark within its domain name and is operating a dupe / fake website https://signatureglobal.com/. ("Impugned Website") through which it is misrepresenting the Plaintiff, and offering the same services as that of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff first became aware of the infringing activities of Defendant No. 1 in the first week of November, 2025 during a routine online CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 5 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 investigation. Defendant No. 1 is operating the Impugned Website that is deceptively and confusingly similar to the Plaintiff's Website.

21.7 The Impugned Website has mirrored the Plaintiff's Website in every material aspect, including replication of the 'Contact Us' page and the official e-mail address and registered address so as to mislead customers into believing that the Impugned Website is owned / operated and / or associated with the Plaintiff. The only change made by Defendant No. 1 is the replacement of the Plaintiff's contact details with an unknown mobile number. 21.8 The pictures of the Chairman and other Board of Directors as well as Investors of the Plaintiff have also been copied / duplicated by Defendant No. 1 on the Impugned Website to instil a false sense of trust with the general public and further misrepresent the Impugned Website to be belonging to the Plaintiff to play fraud on the innocent customer. 21.9 Defendant No. 1 has also reproduced a list of thirteen entities which are the sister companies of the Plaintiff, along with their Corporate Identification Numbers ("CIN"), so as to falsely project themselves to be in association with the said entities as its own sister companies. The misuse of the Plaintiff's CIN by Defendant No. 1 in this manner is a criminal offence and is clearly done to commit fraud and identity theft.

21.10 The similarity between the Impugned Website and the Plaintiff's Website is reproduced below:

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 6 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 Plaintiff's Official Website - Defendant No. 1's Impugned https://www.signatureglobal.in website -

                                              /                                                  https://signatureglobal.com/
                                                                                    HOME PAGE

 Identical use and placement of the Plaintiff's registered trade mark .

 Home page of both the websites opening with nearly similar videos CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 7 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 'ABOUT US' PAGE  The Chairman and other board of directors of the Plaintiff Company are being falsely displayed and imitated on Defendant No. 1's Website CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 8 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 DUPLICATION OF RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS  The Plaintiff's residential projects and their photographs are being falsely displayed on the Website of Defendant No. 1 CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 9 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 DUPLICATION OF COMMERCIAL PROJECTS  The Plaintiff's commercial project and their photographs are being falsely displayed on the Website of Defendant No. 1 CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 10 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 'CONTACT US' PAGE INVESTORS DETAILS PAGE  The "investors" page of the Plaintiff's website has been blatantly copied by Defendant No. 1 along with the Plaintiff's investor photographs in an identical manner, layout and representation.

DUPLICATION OF ENQUIRY WINDOW ON WEBSITE Plaintiff's website "Enquiry Defendant No. 1's website window" "Enquiry window"-

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 11 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14  The enquiry button on the Right-hand side of the Plaintiff's website which opens a pop-up window has been blatantly copied in a manner identical to the Plaintiff. DUPLICATION OF REGISTERED ADDRESS Registered Office address given Registered Office address given on Plaintiffs website - 13th Floor, on Defendant No. l's website - Dr. Gopal Das Bhawan, 28 13th Floor, Dr. Gopal Das Barakhamba Road, Connaught Bhawan, 28 Barakhamba Road, Place, New Delhi 110001, India. Connaught Place, New Delhi 110001, India.

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 12 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 DUPLICATION OF CORPORATE ADDRESS Corporate Office address given Corporate Office address given on Plaintiff's website - Unit No. on Defendant No. 1's website - 101, Ground Floor, Tower-A, Unit No. 101, Ground Floor, Signature Tower South City-1, Tower-A, Signature Tower Gurugram, Haryana 122001, South City-1, Gurugram, India. Haryana 122001, India.

 The contact information and addresses of the Plaintiff Company are being falsely displayed on the Website of Defendant No. 1.

21.11 Thus the copyright vested in the Plaintiff's Website has also been fraudulently imitated and copied in the Impugned website. By copying the literary content, layout, artwork and the images from the Plaintiff's Website Defendant No. 1 is attempting to mislead and dupe customers into making false bookings / advance payments towards real estate projects and to defraud customers of their hard-earned money.

21.12 The Plaintiff has also found that the Impugned Website has been registered under an unknown name / address. A perusal of the registrant information on www.whois.com revealed that the information provided for the Impugned Website are hidden, and only reflects the Registrant details as 'Domains By Proxy, LLC', a domain privacy service that is offered through both Defendant No. 2 and Defendant No. 3. The Impugned Website has been registered by the Domain Name Registrar 'GoDaddy.com', arraigned as Defendant No. 3 in the present Suit.

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 13 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 21.13 As per the Plaintiff's knowledge, Defendant No. 1 also appears to be promoting and advertising real estate projects on social media platforms and other mobile applications under the Subject Mark.

21.14 Defendant No. 1's acts infringe the Plaintiff's intellectual property rights and amounts to torts of unfair trade practices, misappropriation, cheating, misrepresentation, fraud, passing off, and causing irreparable harm to the Plaintiff's goodwill and reputation while simultaneously defrauding innocent members of the public.

21.15 The Plaintiff is suffering irreparable damage and injury on account of maligning of its goodwill and reputation. The injury suffered by the Plaintiff to its goodwill and reputation is not tangible and cannot be quantified or compensated. Therefore, an an order restraining Defendant No. 1's alleged activities is imperative. The balance of convenience is also in favor of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff will continue to suffer losses if Defendant No. 1 is not restrained from continuing the infringing activities.

22. The material placed on record demonstrates that the Plaintiff is the prior adopter and continuous user of the Subject Mark and has, over a sustained period, acquired distinct goodwill and public recognition in the real-estate sector. The Plaintiff's consistent market presence since 2014, coupled with extensive promotion of its projects and the distinctive presentation of the Plaintiff's Website, has resulted in the Subject Mark being identified exclusively with the Plaintiff by homebuyers, investors, and industry stakeholders.

CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 14 of 16

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14

23. The Impugned Website has imitated essential and distinctive element of the Plaintiff's Website including replication of the domain name, layout, images, textual content. Such reproduction of the Plaintiff's Website combined with the unauthorised use of the Plaintiff's corporate information, photographs of its Chairman and Board of Directors, and details of its sister companies and their CINs creates a false impression of affiliation and is calculated to mislead members of the public into believing that the Impugned Website is operated or endorsed by the Plaintiff. The overall impression created by the Impugned Website is deceptively similar to that of the Plaintiff's Website, giving rise to a likelihood of confusion and enabling fraudulent extraction of money from unsuspecting homebuyers.

24. Having considered the material placed on record and the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the Plaintiff, a prima facie case is made out in favour of the Plaintiff; the balance of convenience lies with the Plaintiff; and the continued operation of the Impugned Website would result in irreparable injury to the Plaintiff's goodwill, reputation, and customer trust.

25. Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, it is directed that:

(i) Defendant No. 1 and its associates, business partners, legal heirs or any person(s) are restrained from registering / operating / owning / hosting / publishing / advertising or in any manner dealing with the Impugned Website https://signatureglobal.com/ or any other website, domain, sub-domain, URL, online platform, landing pages, social media pages, mobile applications, or digital listings that impersonate or misrepresent the Plaintiff in any manner whatsoever by using, reproducing, copying or incorporating the Subject Mark 'SIGNATUREGLOBAL' / CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 15 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14 ' ' either as a standalone mark or in combination with any prefix, suffix, misspelt words, transliterations, representations, logos, device marks, domain names, meta-tags, keywords, or any visually, structurally, phonetically or deceptively similar variation thereof.

(ii) Defendants No. 3 is directed to lock and suspend the Domain Name https://signatureglobal.com/ within 72 hours of receipt of the Notice and copy of this Order.

(iii) Defendant Nos. 2 and 3 shall file an Affidavit in a sealed cover / password protected document disclosing the complete details of Defendant No. 1, as available with Defendant Nos. 2 and 3, including e-mail addresses, mobile numbers, contact details, payment details and KYC details, within four weeks from the receipt of the Notice and copy of this Order.

26. Let the Reply to the present Application be filed within four weeks after service of Notice. Rejoinder thereto, if any, be filed before the next date of hearing.

27. The compliance of Order XXXIX Rule 3 of the CPC be done within two weeks.

28. List before this Court on 10.03.2026.

TEJAS KARIA, J NOVEMBER 12, 2025/sms CS(COMM) 1209/2025 Page 16 of 16 This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 17/11/2025 at 21:22:14

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Delhi High Court - Orders

Signatureglobal (India) Limited vs Ashok Kumar & Ors on 12 November, 2025