Delhi HC vacates Makemytrip's injunction against Google and Booking in 'adwords' case

Google gets relief from Delhi HC

A division bench of Delhi high court on December 14 vacated an interim ruling by a single judge restraining Google from using travel company Makemytrip's (MMT)  registered trademarks as ‘keywords’ on the Google Ads Program.

"The  impugned judgment, clearly, indicates that the Single Judge had not found the use of MIPL’s trademarks as infringing use under Trade Marks Act," the order states.

MMT had claimed that its trademarks 'Makemytrip' and 'MMT' were being used as keywords in the Google Ads Program for displaying the links/ads of its rival 'Booking.com'. That is, whenever a person would do a google search for 'Makemytrip', they would be shown an advertisement of Booking.com. MMT alleged that this amounted to a violation of its registered trademark and filed an trademark infringement suit against Google and Booking.

Single judge's order:

In June 2022, a single judge of the Delhi High Court held that use of MMT's registered trademarks by Booking.com for the purposes of advertising amounted in violation of the former's intellectual property rights. The court noted that  Google was encashing on the goodwill of MMT by allowing its competitor to book MIPL’s trademarks as keywords.

Further the single judge held that the  practice of using  trademarks as keywords amounted to taking unfair advantage of registered trademarks.

Division bench's order:

In an earlier case relating to a company called DRS logistics, the division bench of the High court had held "There was nothing illegal in Google using the trademarks as keywords for display of advertisements if it did not result in any confusion or mislead internet users to believe that sponsored links or Ads displayed were associated with the proprietors of the trademarks."

The bench held that the use of trademarks as keywords in the absence of  any confusion or unfair advantage, would not infringe the trademark. Noting that MMT also participates in Google Ads program, the court observed that  the company claims that Booking.com’s advertisements or links should not be visible as sponsored link when someone search's for MMT.

The court said "Prima facie, we are unable to accept that MMT can claim any such right on the basis of its rights under the Trademark Act." To substantiate this further, the court noted that Booking is a well-known and popular platform offering travel services and an internet user an internet user is unlikely to be misled into believing that the services offered by
Booking are those of MMT.