Adobe Inc. V. Namase Patel and Others
Brief Facts
In this case, the plaintiff is a company dealing in computer software and other IT related services in the name of ‘ADOBE’ which was formed in 1980 and has been registered as trademark in India as well as in other foreign countries. The case has been filed to seek permanent injunction, passing off, dissemination of confidential information, unfair trade practices, transfer of domain names, rendition of accounts and damages against the defendant- Namase Patel who has registered the domain names ‘www.addobe.com’ and ‘www.adobee.com’ which are infringing the plaintiff’s trademark. It was also seen that the defendant was a habitual registrant of variations of well-known trademarks and there are several orders, which have been passed against him under the proceedings by the Arbitral Forum. The Plaintiff discovered the said usage of the Infringing Domains when a few emails, which were meant for circulation within the Plaintiff-company, were found to have been received by the Defendants due to a spelling error made by the sender of the emails. Defendant was availing services of ‘Above.com’ by utilizing a feature called catch-all configuration wherein all the emails, which may have been sent with a spelling error of the Plaintiff’s domain name is received by Defendant.
Legal Analysis
The court observed that the defendant was a habitual cyber squatter engaged in registering various other domain names. Such registration of well-known trademarks as domain names constitutes bad faith, As held in Satyam Infoway Ltd. v. Sifynet Solutions Pvt. Ltd., 2004 by the Supreme Court, cyber-squatting cannot be encouraged and is clearly contrary to law. The Court was also convinced that the availing of a catch-all configuration being hosted on ‘www.above.com’ is conduct which is meant to cause harm to the Plaintiff. Defendant No.1 is also stated to be using the subdomains ‘photoshop.addobe.com’ and ‘spark.adobee.com’, whereas ‘SPARK’ and ‘PHOTOSHOP’ are both products of the Plaintiff.
Conclusion
The court held that the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case and hence, ex-parte injunction was passed against the defendant. The court also directed the defendant and anyone acting on his behalf to restrain from using the Infringing Domains being ‘www.addobe.com’ and ‘www.adobee.com’ and further from registering any domain name, which incorporates the Plaintiff’s trademark ‘ADOBE’ or ‘PHOTOSHOP’ or ‘SPARK’ or any other variants.
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