Delhi High Court Grants Permanent Injunction Against ‘Satta Dream 11’ in Trademark Infringement Suit by ‘Dream 11’
Delhi High Court Grants Permanent Injunction Against ‘Satta Dream 11’ in Trademark Infringement Suit by ‘Dream 11’
The Delhi High Court while ruling in favor of fantasy sports platform ‘Dream 11’, granted permanent injunction against a website offering similar sports betting services under the mark ‘Satta Dream 11.’
The single judge Justice Prathiba M Singh observed that the domain name www.sattadream11.com is nothing but a ‘malafide attempt’ to ride on the goodwill of Sporta Technologies registered trademark Dream11.
In the present case, Sporta Technologies had filed the trademark infringement suit last year against Unfading OPC Private Limited, an entity who owned and operated the website www.sattadream11.com and logo Satta Dream 11. On 1 April, 2022, an ex parte ad- interim injunction order was granted in favor of Sporta Technologies.
During the hearing on 7 July, the judge noted that the defendant entity failed to enter appearance despite service regardless of repeated attempts.
The Judge opined that the impugned domain name was nothing but a mala fide attempts to ride on the goodwill of the Plaintiff’s mark ‘Dream11’.
The Court observed, “the said mark is completely arbitrary and thus very distinctive. The said marks, ‘Dream11’ and ‘sattadream 11’ are similar and there is a high chance of confusion between the two marks. This is especially true on the internet, where the difference between such domain names would not be easily discernible.”
Further, considering the nature of the internet, the Court stated that it would be possible for similar sounding website names to be presumed as being affiliated, and the use of such similar sounding domain names and that too for identical services inevitably results in passing off of one service as that affiliated, sponsored or connected with the other.
While decreeing the suit, the court also directed GoDaddy.com LLC to transfer the domain name www.sattadream11.com to Sporta Technologies, subject to payment of any registration charges, if required.
