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Informist, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected Yatra Online Ltd.'s interim injunction plea seeking to restrain Mach Conferences and Events Ltd. from using the names 'BookMyYatra' and 'BookMyYatra.com'. The high court said that Yatra Online's registered marks are device marks and not word marks. "Hence, no infringement can be brought merely because of the use of the word 'yatra' by the defendant as 'yatra' is a generic and a descriptive word," said the court.

The court said that 'yatra' cannot be held to be a well-known mark that is unmistakably relatable to the only source, which was Yatra Online. Given that 'yatra' is a generic and descriptive word, it would not be open for Yatra Online to claim it as a well-known mark, said the court.

When Mach Conferences' trademark is viewed as a whole, the same is distinguishable by the prefix 'BookMy', said the high court. The defendant claims that it does not have a logo or device and only has word marks 'BookMyYatra' and 'BookMyYatra.com', with B, M and Y in capitals and rest in small case, while the plaintiff's use of word 'yatra' is all in small case in red and a particular style, the court noted. This argument of Mach Conferences has merit as the word marks 'BookMyYatra' and 'BookMyYatra.com' are distinctive with the use of prefix before the word 'yatra', said the court.

The high court rejected the petitioner's argument that 'BookMy' has been adopted by Mach Conferences from another well-known third-party website, 'BookMyShow.com' and clubbed with Yatra Online's mark 'yatra.com'. The court said that in its earlier judgement it held that the words 'BookMy' are descriptive in nature and the trademark 'BookMyShow' had not acquired a distinctive meaning for grant of injunction against the use of the prefix 'BookMy'. Hence, Mach Conferences' marks 'BookMyYatra' and 'BookMyYatra.com' do not violate any trademark in 'BookMy' or 'yatra' disjunctively or collectively as a whole, the court added.

The petitioner had said that it adopted the trademark 'yatra' in the year 2005 as part of its trade name and commenced its business of providing online travel booking and related services to its customers. The petitioner through its interactive website, www.yatra.com, its mobile applications and its other associated platforms, provides an online platform to its customers to explore, research, compare prices and book travel related services. 

In November, the plaintiff came across a document which was a transcript of a question-and-answer session with the chairman and managing director of Mach Conferences. The petitioner said that after reviewing the transcript, it was shocked to know that Mach Conferences was at a preparatory stage of launching a portal under the name 'BookMyYatra'. Further, Mach Conferences had filed trademark applications seeking registrations of trademarks 'BookMyYatra' and ‘BookMyYatra.com', to which the petitioner objected. Thereafter, Yatra Online filed an injunction suit in the court and argued that Mach Conferences had intentionally and malafidely adopted deceptively similar marks for travel bookings and related services. 

On Friday, shares of Yatra Online ended 3.8% lower at INR 152.24 on the National Stock Exchange and those of Mach Conferences ended 1.1% lower at INR 130 on the BSE.  End

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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