Delhi High Court Upholds Order Protecting 'BIMA SUGAM' Mark, Orders Transfer of Disputed Domains to Federation

The Delhi High Court in an interim order upheld its earlier direction restraining a insurance agent from using the mark “BIMA SUGAM”, a name associated with India's upcoming unified digital insurance marketplace, or any deceptively similar name, including related domain names. The court also directed that the disputed domains be transferred to the Bima Sugam India Federation, holding that their registration by the individual was made in bad faith and amounted to cybersquatting. A single bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora on October 16 passed the order in a suit filed by Bima Sugam India Federation, observing that the mark “BIMA SUGAM” had acquired recognition through extensive publicity by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) well before the individual registered these domains. The Bima Sugam India Federation, incorporated in 2024, was established to implement the IRDAI (Bima Sugam – Insurance Electronic Marketplace) Regulations, 2024, which seek to create a single digital platform for buying, selling, and servicing insurance policies across India. The term “BIMA SUGAM”, meaning “easy insurance”, was first announced by IRDAI in August 2022 and received wide media attention as a significant step in building a digital insurance ecosystem. Shortly after this announcement, one A. Range Gowda, a private individual and insurance agent, registered the domain names 'bimasugam.com' and 'bimasugam.in' in October 2022. The company stated that the individual never made any genuine use of the domain names and instead offered to sell them for Rs 50 crore which it alleged, clearly demonstrated his bad faith and dishonest intent. The court held that the company had established prior adoption and use of the “BIMA SUGAM” mark through IRDAI's official announcements and extensive publicity that preceded the defendant's domain registrations. Relying on judgments of N.R. Dongre v. Whirlpool Corporation and Burger King Corp. v. Techchand Shewakramani, the Court reiterated that advertising, promotion, and public recognition of a mark can constitute “use” under Section 2(2)(c)(i) of the Trade Marks Act , even before a product or service is commercially launched."The conduct of Defendant No. 1 in filing false user affidavits and the demand of INR 50 crores made in its reply proves that Defendant No. 1 has blocked the impugned domain names and attempted to usurp the 'BIMA SUGAM' mark with an intention to sell and/or transfer the same for valuable consideration. Defendant No. 1 has chosen a squatting tactic by registering the impugned domain names on 01st October 2022, shortly after the public announcements regarding the launch of BIMA SUGAM Marketplace was made by the Chairperson, IRDAI on 25th August 2022 and 30th August 2022", it said. Consequently, the Court upheld its earlier ad-interim order dated May 25, finding that the company had a strong prima facie case, and directed the domain registrar to transfer 'bimasugam.com' and 'bimasugam.in' to the company. Case Title: Bima Sugam India Federation v. A Range Gowda & Ors.Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1441 Case No : CS (COMM) 577/2025 For the Plaintiff: Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal with Advocates Swati Sharma, Rohin Kolwal, Ridhie Bajaj, Sugandh Shahi and Pundreek Dwivedi For the Defendants: Senior Advocate Ashish Mohan with Advocate Paritosh Dhawan for thr private individual; Advocats Mrinal Ojha, Debarshi Dutta, Arjun Mookerjee and Yogesh Singh for other defendents Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Delhi High Court Upholds Order Protecting 'BIMA SUGAM' Mark, Orders Transfer of Disputed Domains to Federation

Ayushi Shukla

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