Delhi High Court Grants Permanent Injunction In Favor Of Dream11, Restraining The Defendants From Using The Mark “Dreamz11” or any similar variant as a trade mark, domain mark, part of their e-mail ID or in any other manner.
Title: SPORTA TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD. AND ANR. v. DREAMZ11 AND ANR.
Decided on: 19th october 2023
CS(COMM) 44/2023 & I.A. 1412/2023
Coram: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C. HARI SHANKAR
Introduction
Delhi High Court has granted a permanent injunction in favor of Dream11, restraining the defendants & others from using the mark “dreamz11” or any similar variant thereof, as a trade mark, trade name, domain name, part of their e-mail ID or in any other manner.
Facts of the case
Plaintiff 1 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plaintiff 2 and is the registered proprietor of the trade mark “Dream11”. Plaintiff 2 also operates the website www.dream11.com registered on 17 March 2008. Through these trademarks, the plaintiff provides access to fantasy games. The plaintiffs are aggrieved by the act of Defendant 1 in using the trade mark “dreamz11”, through which Defendants 1 and 2 also provide the services of fantasy games. The plaintiffs alleged infringement as well as passing off, on the part of Defendants 1 and 2. Contending the mark “dreamz11” to be phonetically and deceptively similar to the mark “dream11” which is already registered in favour of the plaintiff, the website name of the defendants www.dreamz11.com is also confusingly and deceptively similar to the domain names of the plaintiffs’ website www.dream11.com & the plaintiff’s website shows five players, three at the lower level and two at the upper level, the same arrangement of players has been adopted by the defendants. Access to the fantasy games app provided by the defendants is also allowed, on the defendants’ website, in a manner similar to that of the plaintiffs’. The step by step process which is to be followed for downloading the defendant’s games on the defendant’s website is also identical to that of the plaintiff. The plaintiffs have prayed for blocking the domain name of Defendant 1 and for transfer of the said domain name to the plaintiffs, which must be implemented by GoDaddy. While granting ex parte ad interim injunction on 24 January 2023, this Court directed GoDaddy to suspend access to the domain name dreamz11.com and the website www.dreamz11.com and to produce the address and BIS details of the registrant of the said domain name. Defendants 1 and 2 having failed to file their respective responses to suit & the learned Joint Registrar (Judicial), by order dated 6 July 2023, closed their right to file written statements. Having perused the material this suit was opined not to merit subjection to trial and the suit was capable of being straight away decreed, in terms of Order VIII Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC).
Court Analysis and Decision
Court observed that Defendants 1 and 2 have remained unrepresented throughout. hence, the plaintiffs are entitled to a decree in its favour. Accordingly, suit was decreed in the terms of permanent injunction restraining the defendants as well as all others acting on their behalf from using the mark “dreamz11” or any similar variant thereof, as a trade mark, trade name, domain name, part of their e-mail ID or in any other manner. The Defendants 1 and 2 are restrained form using the domain name “dreamz11.com” or operating the website www.dreamz11.com and Defendant 3 was directed not to register hereinafter the domain name “dreamz11.com”. Since it is a clear-cut case of infringement and passing off, the plaintiff would be entitled to actual costs. Court opined that in given circumstances, the matter must be listed before the concerned Taxation Officer of the Court on 10 November 2023, before whom the plaintiffs would appear and provide the statement of costs. The taxation officer would compute the actual costs incurred by the plaintiffs, to which the plaintiffs would be entitled from the Defendants 1 and 2.
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Written by- K R Bhuvanashri