Delhi High Court rules in favour of Meta, restrains the use of 'Facebake' marks

Delhi High Court rules in favour of Meta, restrains the use of 'Facebake' marks.

The case was adjudicated by a single judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla

The Delhi High Court has issued a permanent injunction in favor of Meta Platforms Ltd, restraining the defendants from using the marks "Facebake‟ and/or the domain name www.facebake.in; the email IDs facebake.mail@gmail.com; facebake649@gmail.com. Additionally, the Defendants are also retrained from using Facebook marks, Facebook Visual Presentation, and any other 'Facebook‟ formative trademarks.

Aggrieved by the Trademark application of the mark 'Facebake', Meta approached the Court for relief. It was stated by Meta that the Defendant was mimicking the visual presentation by copying the color scheme, font, commercial impression, and overall look and feel of Facebook, and thus was intentionally trading off the goodwill of 'Facebook' marks.

It was further stated by Meta that it filed a trademark opposition against the Defendant's marks when it came across the trademark advertisement in the trademark journal seeking registration of its mark 'Facebake'. Meta claimed that the use of the similar mark by the defendants was an infringement of its statutory as well as common law rights and also results in passing off dilution, and unfair competition by the Defendant.

It was also highlighted before the Court that on the service of the ad-interim order of injunction, the Defendant's changed the name from 'Facebake' to 'Facecake', which were also deceptively similar to Meta's marks.

In light of the submissions and evidence put on record, the Court was of the prima facie opinion that, "..it cannot seriously be disputed that the marks of the plaintiff are well-known in India".

It was further pointed out that:

"In the present case, though there is some distinction between the marks of the plaintiff and the defendants, the overall visual representation adopted by the defendants, clearly depicts the mala fide intent of the defendants in obtaining unfair advantage by the use of the mark similar to that of the plaintiff and also leads to the dilution of the mark of the plaintiff……The mala fide intent of the defendants is also evident from the fact that upon the knowledge of the ad-interim injunction passed by this Court, the defendants changed the mark from „facebake‟ to „facecake‟ thereby changing only one alphabet, however, chose not to appear before this Court to defend the suit despite service"

Even though the Court was of the opinion that there is some distinction between the two marks, nonetheless the overall visual representation adopted by the Defendant showcased its mala fide intention to obtain unfair advantage by the use if its marks. The Court made concluding statements that marks of the Defendant were indeed deceptively similar to Meta's 'Facebook' marks.

The Court awarded damages of Rs. 50,000 in favor of Meta Platforms Ltd and also directed the Defendant to pay off the suit to Meta.