The Supreme Court on March 7th rejected a petition filed by travel services platform MakeMyTrip (MMT) against tech giant Google concerning the alleged misuse of trademarks as “keywords” within Google’s Ads Program.
MMT had alleged that its trademarks “MakeMyTrip” and ‘MMT’ were being utilized as keywords in Google’s Ads Program to display links/ads of its competitor ‘Booking.com,’ which it argued constituted a violation of its registered trademark.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud dismissed the petition, stating that individuals seeking to book through MakeMyTrip would not likely confuse it with ‘booking.com’. However, the court clarified that this was an interim decision, pending the conclusion of the trial in the intellectual property infringement case.
In December, a two-judge panel of the Delhi High Court overturned an interim order by a single judge that had restrained Google from using MakeMyTrip’s registered trademarks as “keywords” on the Google Ads Program. The panel concluded that using trademarks as keywords, in the absence of any confusion or unfair advantage, did not constitute trademark infringement.
The court stated, “At first glance, we do not see that MMT can assert such a right based on its rights under the Trademark Act.”
The December ruling came in response to an appeal filed by Google against the single judge’s decision.
