Delhi High Court: The present suit was filed by plaintiff, Winzo Games (P) Ltd. seeking a permanent injunction restraining Defendant 1, 2 and 4 from infringing plaintiff’s registered marks WinZO/WinZO Games/WINZO. Prathiba M. Singh, J.*, permanently injuncted defendants from using the marks ‘WinZO’, ‘WinZO Games’, ‘WINZO’ or any other name deceptively similar to plaintiff’s ‘WINZO’ marks in either offline or online media, including as part of domain names, websites, apps, or any other digital platforms.
Background
Plaintiff was a digital gaming and technology company founded in 2016, with its registered office in New Delhi. It operated a popular online skill-based gaming platform under the registered trade mark and brand name ‘WinZO/WINZO’. The mark ‘WinZO/WINZO’ was conceived and adopted by plaintiff in 2017. It was an innovative and distinctive combination of the words ‘Win’ and ‘ZO’ (signifying speed and energy), and it represented the essence of the games available on the platform. Plaintiff claimed to have applied for various marks, including marks ‘WinZO’ and ‘WinZO Games’, and other ‘WINZO’ formatives/variant marks in respect of mobile applications, online gaming, services relating to business administrations telecommunications services and design and development of hardware and software services falling under classes 9, 35, 38, 41 and 42.
Plaintiff filed a suit against www.winzos.com operated by Defendant 1, Bajaar LLC, a Houston based US company and the said domain name was being used for an identical platform for playing games, trivia, and shopping. In October 2022, plaintiff discovered that Defendant 1 was infringing their marks by offering an application called ‘WINZOS!’ on Apple’s App Store and an associated website, www.winzos.com. Defendant 1’s services were very similar to those offered by plaintiff under the trade marks ‘WinZO,’ ‘WINZO GAMES,’ and ‘WINZO.’ Further investigation by plaintiff revealed that the infringing application was easily accessible in India through Apple App Store, and Google Play Store on laptops and tablets/iPads, but not on mobile phones.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court noted that the ‘www.winzos.com’ domain name was still being used, despite the injunction order dated 10-03-2023, passed by this Court. The Court opined that there was serious possibility of the said domain name being misused, considering that plaintiff operated a gaming app under the said marks. The mark ‘WINZO’ being a registered trade mark of plaintiff and plaintiff being a globally renowned gaming platform, misuse of the name would be impermissible. The Court further opined that defendants were based out of India and were taking shelter under the technological tools to stay away from the Court, while continuing to operate the platform.
The Court thus permanently injuncted defendants from using the marks ‘WinZO’, ‘WinZO Games’, ‘WINZO’ or any other name deceptively similar to plaintiff’s ‘WINZO’ marks in either offline or online media, including as part of domain names, websites, apps, or any other digital platforms. The Court further directed plaintiff’s counsel to send an email to defendants’ counsel, to ensure that the www.winzos.com extension on Google Chrome Webstore was deactivated and if any further links are found on any online platforms, plaintiff was free to contact the said platforms and ensure removal of the same.
[Winzo Games (P) Ltd. v. Bajaar LLC, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 8160, decided on 19-12-2023]
*Judgment authored by: Justice Prathiba M. Singh
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Abhishek Malhotra, Sanya Sehgal, Advocates
For the Defendants: Riddima Sharma, Malvika Aggarwal, Mamta Rani Jha, Rohan Ahuja, Shruttima Ehersa, Vatsalya Vishal, Amishi Sodani, Rahul Choudhary, Advocates
