The Delhi High Court has ordered the suspension of 125 websites and domain names allegedly exploiting Reliance Industries Limited’s Jio trademark to promote lottery, gaming and related services.
The interim order was passed by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav on October 7 in a trademark infringement case brought by Reliance Industries against Rahul Meena and several other parties.
The Court also directed Google to take down a webpage hosted on its Blogger platform that allegedly violated Jio’s trademark rights.
Court flags websites allegedly exploiting Jio’s identity
Reliance Industries approached the Court claiming that multiple websites were unlawfully incorporating its registered Jio trademark into their domain names to attract users to lottery and gaming platforms.
The company argued that the use of names and marks such as JIO, JIO LOTTERY and JIO LOTTERY GAME was identical or deceptively similar to its registered trademarks, creating a risk of confusion among consumers.
The disputed domains included jiolotteryi.com, jiolotterylogin.com, jiolotterygame.com, jiolottery.club and jiolottery.store.
According to Reliance Industries, these platforms were using the Jio name in connection with lottery, gaming, payment-related and allied services without authorisation.
Court applies test for identifying rogue websites
After examining the websites and their contents, the Court found that they prima facie met the criteria for classification as rogue websites under the principles laid down by the Delhi High Court in its 2019 decision in UTV Software Communication Ltd. v. 1337X.to.
The earlier ruling established that courts must assess a website’s primary purpose and overall effect rather than simply count the amount of infringing material it contains. The assessment, therefore, must be qualitative rather than merely quantitative.
The judgment also recognised that blocking individual web addresses may prove ineffective because operators can shift to new URLs to evade restrictions.
Applying these principles, the Court restrained Meena from registering, operating, controlling, promoting or otherwise using domain names and marks identical or deceptively similar to Jio.
It also directed the domain name registrars named in the proceedings to suspend the identified websites and associated accounts until further orders.
125 domains face suspension
The annexure to the order listed 126 web addresses, including mirror sites, redirecting domains and websites with similar structures. Of these, 125 were covered by the suspension directions, while a separate takedown order was issued against the Blogger webpage.
The domains were registered or hosted through several service providers, including NameCheap, GoDaddy, Dynadot and Spaceship.
The case also involves Google, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and the Department of Telecommunications, among other defendants.
Recognising the urgency of the relief sought, the Court exempted Reliance Industries from mandatory pre-institution mediation under the Commercial Courts Act.
The Court issued summons in the suit and scheduled the interim application for further consideration on November 30.