The Bombay High Court issued an interim order on Monday directing GoDaddy, an internet domain registrar, to notify Swiggy whenever a domain name with the mark ‘Swiggy’ is registered.
A single bench of Justice Manish Pitale was hearing the matter.
Although GoDaddy could not prevent future registrations, Justice Pitale stated that given the unusual situation in which the public was affected due to nefarious activities of entities claiming to be associated with Swiggy, it could notify Swiggy when a domain name containing its mark is registered.
The directive was issued in response to a ‘unusual situation’ in which entities posing as Swiggy associates duped people out of money with the promise of bringing them on board the ‘Swiggy Instamart’ platform.
The Court was hearing an application filed by GoDaddy to modify a November 2022 order that directed GoDaddy to suspend current and future registrations of domain names containing the mark ‘Swiggy’ while Swiggy’s suit was pending.
Swiggy requested the order in November 2022 in response to people using confusingly similar domain names to its trademark.
GoDaddy then moved the current application for order modification.
GoDaddy’s counsel informed the Court that the company could suspend current registrations but not future registrations because domain name registration is an automatic process that does not require human intervention.
The bench noted that the stands taken by GoDaddy before it was in the teeth of the stand taken by them on affidavit before Delhi High Court.
It also stated that compliance was possible if GoDaddy used a different algorithm.
“In that light, the Plaintiff’s contention is correct to the extent that Defendant No. 15 is avoiding doing so, merely because it may have to bear some financial burden in that regard,” the Court added.
It held that there was no substance in the submission that compliance with the direction was technologically impossible.
As a result, the Court determined that continuing the ad-interim order would amount to granting an omnibus and global temporary injunction that would be effective in the future.
However, keeping the interest of Swiggy in mind, the Court directed GoDaddy to inform Swiggy every time a domain name containing the mark ‘ Swiggy’ is registered so that it could take appropriate action.
