Delhi High Court: In a suit filed by Bima Sugam India Federation, the plaintiff seeking permanent injunction restraining the defendants from passing off of the mark ‘BIMA SUGAM’, Amit Bansal, J., stated that a prima facie case had been out on behalf of the plaintiff. Balance of convenience was also in the plaintiff’s favour and against the defendants. Thus, the Court granted interim injunction in favour of Bima Sugam India Federation and restrained Defendant 1, all others acting on his behalf, from selling, offering for sale, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in any manner with any goods or services using the mark ‘BIMA SUGAM’.
Background
The plaintiff was a not-for-profit company incorporated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The plaintiff company was established pursuant to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Bima Sugam – Insurance Electronic Marketplace) Regulations, 2024 (‘Bima Sugam Regulations’).
As per Regulation 4(a) of the Bima Sugam Regulations, the plaintiff was incorporated for the establishment of the ‘Bima Sugam- Insurance Electronic Marketplace’ (‘Bima Sugam Marketplace’). The Bima Sugam Marketplace and the trade mark “BIMA SUGAM” were first conceived in or around August 2022 by the IRDAI and have since received extensive media coverage online as well as through conventional television and print media. The mark “BIMA SUGAM”, comprised of a unique combination of the Hindi-language dictionary words “BIMA” and “SUGAM”, which when translated to English mean “insurance” and “accessible” respectively.
The plaintiff was set up with the objective of establishing, facilitating, developing, operating and maintaining the Bima Sugam Marketplace for providing various services to the insurance stakeholders, including Life Insurance Corporation of India, and other major private players. In April 2024, plaintiff had applied for the registration of trade mark ‘BIMA SUGAM’, which was still pending.
Defendant 1 acted as Insurance Agent, majorly for Life Insurance Corporation of India and was based in Bangalore. Defendant 1 had registered the domain names www.bimasugam.com and www.bimasugam.in in October 2022, soon after the Bima Sugam Marketplace was publicly announced by IRDAI in the month of August 2022. Defendant 1 hosted a website on the aforesaid domain names showcasing the services offered by him as an insurance agent.
Upon getting to know of the registration of domain name by Defendant 1, the plaintiff issued a legal notice claiming rights in the ‘BIMA SUGAM’ trade mark and calling upon Defendant 1 to cease and desist from using the aforesaid names. Subsequently, in February 2025, it came to the knowledge of the plaintiff that Defendant 1 had filed an application seeking registration of the mark ‘BIMA SUGAM’. The plaintiff immediately filed a protest letter with Defendant 3, seeking that the Trade Marks Registry refuses Defendant 1’s trade mark application.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court stated that a prima facie case had been out on behalf of the plaintiff. Balance of convenience was also in the plaintiff’s favour and against the defendants. The registration of the impugned domain names by Defendant 1 would be prejudicial to public interest as Defendant 1 was seeking to monopolize the mark, which was announced by the Insurance Regulator IRDAI for a specific purpose in public interest.
Consequently, till the next date of hearing, the Court restrained Defendant 1, his employees, partners, agents, associates, affiliates, trading concerns and all others acting on his behalf, from selling, offering for sale, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in any manner with any goods or services using the mark “BIMA SUGAM”/ or any other trade marks, containing the plaintiff’s “BIMA SUGAM” marks and any other mark deceptively similar thereto either by itself, or in conjunction with any other mark, and/or their variations, as a part of their domain names.
Further, the Court directed GoDaddy.com to lock and suspend the domain names www.bimasugam.com and www.bimasugam.in.
The matter is next listed on 16-7-2025.
[Bima Sugam India Federation v. A Range Gowda, 2025 SCC OnLine Del 4337, decided on 29-5-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Akhil Sibal, Senior Advocate, Swati Sharma, Rohin Koolwal, Pundreek Dwivedi, Ridhie Bajaj, Sugandh and Aryaman Vachher, Advocates.
For the Defendants: Pratibhanu Singh Kharola and Girish Agarwal, Advocates.
