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DELHI HIGH COURT
PRATHIBA M.SINGH
Government E Marketplace – Appellant
Versus
Unilex Consultants – Respondent
JUDGMENT
Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.
CS (COMM) 205/2020 & I.As. 4967/2020, 4753-54/2021
2. The present suit has been filed by the Plaintiff - The Government E Marketplace (hereinafter "GeM"), which is a National Public Procurement portal and end to end online marketplace from where both Central and State Government Ministries/Departments, CPSUs and SPSUs effect the procurement of goods and services. The mark used by the Plaintiff is `GeM' along with the logo, which is depicted below:
3. The case of the Plaintiff in the present suit is that there are several parties, who are either registering `GeM' in respect of procurement of goods and services as a domain name or using the term `GeM' as a URL extension of their usual websites. Some of the parties are providing services to enable businesses to register on the `GeM' portal. Therefore, the Plaintiff is aggrieved by the fact that the Defendants seemed to be claiming to the public at large, that they are associated with the Plaintiff, thereby misrepresenting their status qua the Plaintiff and also adversely impacting the Plaintiff's brand equity and goodwill
Trademark infringement requires a determining balance between informative use and avoiding public misrepresentation regarding affiliation. Nominative fair use is allowed if it does not imply sponsors....
Nominative fair use and Section 30 of the Trademarks Act, 1999 were central to the judgment, allowing the use of the 'GeM' mark for informational purposes without creating misrepresentation.
The main legal point established in the judgment is the violation of the interim injunction order and the importance of preventing diversion of traffic from the plaintiff's website to that of a compe....
Intermediaries are liable for trademark infringement if they facilitate domain name registrations that include registered trademarks, and blanket injunctions against future registrations require spec....
The main legal point established in the judgment is the finding of trademark infringement and passing off, leading to the award of compensatory and nominal damages to the Plaintiff.
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