Delhi High Court - Orders
Godrej Properties Ltd vs Ashok Kumar & Anr on 14 March, 2022
Author: Jyoti Singh
Bench: Jyoti Singh
$~6
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ CS(COMM) 154/2021
GODREJ PROPERTIES LTD ..... Plaintiff
Through Mr. Jayant Mehta, Senior Advocate
with Mr. Vibhav Mithal, Mr. Achyut Tewari and
Mr. P.D.V. Srikar, Advocates.
versus
ASHOK KUMAR & ANR. ..... Defendants
Through Mr. Darpan Wadhwa, Senior
Advocate with Mr. Moazzam Khan, Mr. Alipak
Banerjee and Mr. Brijesh Ujjainwal, Advocates for
D-2.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE JYOTI SINGH
ORDER
% 14.03.2022 I.A. 1272/2022
1. Present application has been preferred by the Plaintiff seeking the following prayers:-
"An order directing Registrar Defendant No. 2, GoDaddy.com LLC, to immediately suspend and block the following domain names/ websites:
S.No. Domain Name Registrar
1. https://www.godrejprojects.in/ GoDaddy.com,
LLC
2. http://www.godrejgroups.in/ GoDaddy.com,
LLC
3. https://www.godrejindiaprojects.com/ GoDaddy.com, LLC
4. https://www.godrejsproperty.com/ GoDaddy.com, LLC CS(COMM) 154/2021 Page 1 of 4 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:KAMAL KUMAR Signing Date:16.03.2022 20:22:15
(ii) Without prejudice to the Plaintiffs rights and contentions in I.A No 9432 of 2021, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to pass an order directing Defendant No. 2 to take down any domain name in which the Plaintiff's trade mark "Godrej Properties" or any part thereof is mentioned upon the Plaintiff bringing the same to the notice of Defendant No. 2;
(iii) Without prejudice to the Plaintiffs rights and contentions in I.A No 9432 of 2021, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to pass an order allowing the Plaintiff to file affidavits or applications along with supporting documents with this Hon'ble Court, or the Learned Joint Registrars of this Hon'ble Court, whenever it comes across any domain name(s) and/or website(s) which are nearly identical or deceptively similar to the abovementioned infringing domain names and websites operated thereunder, and on satisfaction thereon, extending the interim orders passed in the present application to these newly identified infringing domain name(s) and website(s) and their respective domain registrars as well;
(iv) An order directing that notice be issued to domain name registrants of the domain names in prayer clause (i), via email through Defendant No. 2, GoDaddy.com LLC
(v) Any other order which this Hon'ble Court deems fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the present proceedings."
2. Having heard learned Senior Counsels for the Plaintiff and Defendant No.2 and with the consent of the parties, this Court directs that for any future domain names, which contain the Plaintiff's trademark "Godrej Properties" or any part thereof and which the Plaintiff believes to be the subject of phishing attempts:
(a) Plaintiff shall report to Defendant No.2, GoDaddy.com LLC these domain names, as per their Phishing tool (available at https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/AbuseReport), as detailed in CS(COMM) 154/2021 Page 2 of 4 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:KAMAL KUMAR Signing Date:16.03.2022 20:22:15 paras 30 and 31 of the reply filed by Defendant No.2 to the instant application.
(b) Defendant No.2, GoDaddy.com LLC shall process the request and act on it, if Defendant No.2 finds the Plaintiff's request to be valid and justified.
(c) If Plaintiff is unable to get relief from Defendant No.2, Plaintiff shall be at liberty to approach this Court by filing an affidavit or an application before the Court or the learned Joint Registrar, as the case may be, listing the domains against which it has lodged complaints, along with any other evidence it wishes to rely upon to seek their suspension. Plaintiff shall serve a copy of the affidavit or application upon GoDaddy.com LLC in advance. Upon satisfaction of the Court or the learned Joint Registrar, as the case may be, an appropriate order shall be passed, directing Defendant No.2 to suspend the identified domains. If and when such an order is passed, Plaintiff shall communicate the same to Defendant No.2 for compliance.
(d) Upon Defendant No.2's assurance that it would comply with the aforementioned order, Plaintiff agrees that Defendant No.2 shall be deleted from the array of parties on the next date of hearing.
3. Additionally, Mr. Mehta, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the Plaintiff, during the course of hearing, has handed over a list of domain names, in respect of which, he submits that injunction orders are already operating and therefore Defendant No.2 be directed to disclose directly to the Plaintiff, various details of these registrant(s) to enable the CS(COMM) 154/2021 Page 3 of 4 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:KAMAL KUMAR Signing Date:16.03.2022 20:22:15 Plaintiff to implead them as parties. List has been handed over to Mr. Darpan Wadhwa.
4. I find merit in the submissions made by Mr. Mehta. Accordingly, Defendant No.2 is directed to disclose to the Plaintiff whatever details of the registrant(s), as enumerated in the list, are available with Defendant No.2, within a period of two weeks from today, for the purpose of impleadment alone.
5. In view of the above, prayers (ii) and (iii) of the present application are allowed.
6. Application stands disposed of.
I.A. 6989/2021 & 9432/2021
7. In view of the order passed today in I.A. 1272/2022, present applications stand disposed of.
CS(COMM) 154/2021 & I.A. 4692/2021
8. List on 18.07.2022.
JYOTI SINGH, J MARCH 14, 2022 nn CS(COMM) 154/2021 Page 4 of 4 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:KAMAL KUMAR Signing Date:16.03.2022 20:22:15