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Informist, Friday, Jul. 10, 2026

 

--HC refuses to stay order that Google infringed trademark in advt programme 

--CONTEXT: HC division bench order on Google plea against single judge order 

--HC notice to Hindware on Google plea in trademark case on advt programme

--HC to hear Google's plea in advt programme trademark case on Jul 24 

 

NEW DELHI – The division bench of the Delhi High Court Friday refused to stay its single judge order that Google LLC. and Google India Pvt. Ltd. infringed other companies' trademark through its Google Ads programme. The division bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued a notice to Hindware Ltd., whose trademark the search engine giant had sold to competitors so that the latter's website could appear first when searching for Hindware name, on Google's appeal. The division bench listed Google's plea for final disposal on Jul. 24. 

 

The division bench said that display of websites of other companies on searching Hindware in Google search engine appears to be creating confusion. "We will look into it, we will set out the case for hearing, we will put a date," said the division bench, adding that no interim protection can be granted to Google in its plea. 

 

In May, the single-judge bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna had held that Google sold the trademark of companies to their direct competitors for use as a keyword in Google Ads programme, without seeking permission from the companies, for the purpose of earning revenue, which amounted to trademark infringement. In its order, the single-judge bench had asked Google to pay damages to Hindware. Justice Pushkarna had permanently restrained Google from using Hindware's trademark or any of its combination as part of advertising keywords in its Google Ads programme. Challenging the single judge's order, Google moved the division bench. 

 

Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Google, argued that in 14 countries, not a single one has held that use of keywords for advertising is trademark infringement. When a company uses someone's tradename as a trigger, and there is no confusion, there cannot be any "per se infringement", said Singhvi. 

 

Singhvi said that the case against Google was not about consumer protection or unfair trade practice or where there is any confusion about trademarks, however, a permanent injunction has been issued against the search giant based on these parameters. If the single judge bench's order is not stayed then the established paradigm of industry will be stopped, said Singhvi. Google has a search engine, the single judge's ruling will have a cascading effect for global search of products, he said. The Google Ads programme is in the interest of searchers, people get choice and consumer choice is paramount, said Singhvi, pushing for interim protection to the search engine giant.

 

Google said its trademark policy in India does not restrict the use or bidding of trademarks as keywords to display an advertisement. It does not earn any revenue from mere display of an advertisement under the Google Ads Programme, and this depends upon the cost-per-click on the advertiser's website, Google said.

 

The case has its genesis in Google conducting an auction of keywords in real time. Advertisers bid in advance by specifying the keywords for triggering the display of their advertisement, and the maximum price they are willing to pay if a user clicked on the advertisement. Advertisers do not pay when their advertisement appears on the search engine page, but only when a user clicks on the advertisement to view the website, referred to as 'pay-per-click'. The Google Ads programme enables commercial entities, by means of reservation of one or more keywords, which could be any word, including, the brand names of its competitors, to obtain an advertising link to its site when an internet user enters one or more of the keywords into a search request. 

 

Hindware, which had sales in excess of INR 5 billion in the year 2011-12 (Apr-Mar), had accused Google of infringing its trademark to display companies' websites. Google has adopted a modus operandi whereby the registered mark of the company was offered to its competitors for a price to be paid to Google, allowing them to make huge gains at the cost of infringement of the company's registered mark, Hindware said. Further, there was a categorical admission that Google, by using trademarks, had increased its advertisement programme revenue to at least $100 million, as shown in the e-mail of Google's project manager, it said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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