Delhi HC refuses to restrain use of Policybazaar trademarks on Google Adwords
The court said prima facie, there was no evidence of trademark infringement
The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a plea by Policybazaar seeking to restrain the use of key words identical to its trademarks on Google's AdWords Program by its rivals, according to media reports.
Justice Navin Chawla, presiding over Policybazaar's case against Coverfox Insurance Broking Pvt Ltd and Acko General Insurance Ltd, found that prima facie, there was no evidence of trademark infringement.
In its legal actions against Coverfox and Acko, Policybazaar alleged that these defendant companies were employing keywords identical to "Policybazaar" trademarks, such as "Policy Bazaar," "PolicyBazaar," and "Policy Bazar," with the alleged intention of redirecting business away from Policybazaar's website through the creation of confusion.
The court, in its interim ruling, underscored that the case primarily revolved around the claim that the defendants were utilizing Policybazaar's registered trademarks as keywords within the AdWords Program. However, the mere presence of the defendants' websites as advertisements or sponsored links did not suffice to establish that internet users would be misled or confused by them.
Furthermore, the court observed that Policybazaar had not alleged any deceptive practices. In fact, the search results unmistakably displayed the defendants' website as a sponsored link, minimizing the potential for user confusion.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement, “The court held that the impugned ads in the matter are not infringing on Policybazaar's trademark rights. As a consequence, the existing Policy will continue to be applicable to all advertisers as before.”
“As a company, we comply with all local laws. Specifically on our Ads Trademarks policy, we have a clear and stated policy that does not allow advertisers to use trademarked terms in the ad-text of an ad, except in certain pro-consumer and legal scenarios, such as resellers and informational sites. And we investigate any reported use of a trademarked term in the adtext and take prompt action to not only remove such ads but block that same advertiser from referencing the trademark in their ads in the future. We want users to trust the ads on our platform, so we strive to ensure ads are clear and honest, and provide the information that users need to make informed decisions.”
