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2023 SCC OnLine Del 4000
In the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi
(BEFORE SANJEEV NARULA, J.)
Tata Sky Limited … Plaintiff;
Versus
Linkedin Corporation and Others … Defendants.
CS(COMM) 81/2020
Decided on April 26, 2023
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Mr. Tanmaya Mehta, Advocate.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Mr. Abhishek Kr. Singh and Mr. Saurabh Kumar,
Advocates for D-1.
The Order of the Court was delivered by
SANJEEV NARULA, J.
I.A. 17615/2021 (on behalf of Defendant No. 1 under Section 151 of
the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 [“CPC”] for taking on record reply to I.A.
for impleadment without notary/apostille, etc., at this stage)
1. Applicant/Defendant No. 1's written statement has not been
notarized or apostille. This was because of exemption which was
prevalent at the time when written statement was filed by the
Applicant. Let the same written statement including affidavit of
admission/denial, duly notarised and apostille, be filed within a period
of eight weeks from today.
2. Re-notify on 07th July, 2023.
I.A. 2392/2020 (under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 of CPC for
injunctive reliefs), I.A. 9174/2020 and I.A. 13102/2021 (both
applications under Order I Rule 10 of CPC r/w Order XXXIX Rules 1 and
2, r/w Section 151 CPC)
3. This Court has granted interim injunction on 19th February, 2020,
09th October, 2020 and 06th October, 2021 in favour of Tata Sky Limited
[Plaintiff - hereinafter “Tata Sky”]. LinkedIn Corporation [Defendant No.
1 - hereinafter “LinkedIn”] is the only contesting Defendant, which is a
professional/business-focused social network that allows its members
to create profiles and connect with each other. The dispute inter se Tata
Sky and LinkedIn pertains to creation of fake profiles/accounts whereby
the trademark rights of the former are being infringed on the
network/platform of the latter. In terms of directions issued by this
Court, such profiles have been temporarily disabled. Barring one or two
members who were effected, none have approached LinkedIn raising
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queries regarding their profiles being disabled. Nonetheless, they have
not participated in the present proceedings despite being informed
about the same. Considering the above, injunction orders noted above
stand confirmed and shall continue to operate till the pendency of the
present suit.
4. Mr. Tanmaya Mehta, counsel for Tata Sky, states that the above
grievance is recurring and thus, the Court should consider putting a
mechanism in place so that Tata Sky is not burdened to file a fresh
suit/application each time fake profiles emerge or re-surface on
LinkedIn. Mr. Mehta suggests issuance of a dynamic injunction. Mr.
Abhishek Singh, counsel for LinkedIn relies upon the Information
Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)
Rules, 2021 (further amended vide notification dated 28th October,
2022) and states that Grievance Officer(s) of LinkedIn are in place. He
further states that a Grievance Appellate Committee is also available for
adjudication of appeals arising from the decision of the Grievance
Officer. Thus, Plaintiff presently has the legal remedy for redressal of
their grievance.
5. Mr. Mehta, on instructions, states that after the injunction order,
several more fake/infringing profiles have cropped up on LinkedIn,
which create unauthorized association with Tata Sky by using their
registered trademark(s).
6. In view of the above, it is considered appropriate to direct Tata
Sky to approach the Grievance Officer of Defendant No. 1 giving a list of
such fake/infringing profiles so that an action can be taken by
Defendant No. 1, in terms of the extant rules/notifications noted above.
7. Disposed of.
CS(COMM) 81/2020 & I.A. 2393/2020 (under Section 151 of CPC
for directions)
8. Re-notify on 07th July, 2023.
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