Delhi High Court Restrains Websites Offering Repair Services From Infringing 'Samsung' Trademarks, Copyright

The Delhi High Court has restrained three websites offering repair services from unauthorizedly using logo, design and images pertaining to “Samsung”, resulting in infringement of the latter's trademarks and copyright. Justice Tejas Karia ordered that the access to the domains of the websites in question be locked or suspend or disabled. “This is a case where the adoption and use of the Impugned Websites, containing the well-known Mark 'SAMSUNG' is dishonest and a calculated attempt intended to create false impression that the Impugned Websites are authorised service centres of the Plaintiffs,” the Court said. “Such activities has the tendency to cause confusion, deception and potential reputational loss to the Plaintiffs if any deficiency arises from the services availed through the Impugned Websites, the public would attribute the same to the Plaintiffs,” it added. The judge passed the interim order in the suit filed by Samsung Electronics Limited against the websites. It was alleged that the defendant websites were displaying on their homepage the Mark 'SAMSUNG' prominently and promoted itself as a laptop, mobile and tablet service centre.It was contended that one of the defendants was portraying itself as a Samsung Service provider and its website contained various advertisements asking users to chat with an expert which then redirected to other third party AI chatbots.It was submitted that the defendants were connected to one another as they were using 'Samsung' mark, along with common terms like 'repair' and 'services' to divert traffic from the internet and redirect bona fide users looking for the Samsung's repair services, to unathorized service providers.Passing the interim injunction order in favour of Samsung, Justice Karia said that the Mark 'SAMSUNG' has acquired goodwill and distinctiveness.“Having considered the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the Plaintiffs and the reputation and goodwill of the Plaintiffs in the Mark 'SAMSUNG', the unauthorised use of deceptively similar variants thereto on the Impugned Websites is likely to mislead consumers into believing an association with the Plaintiffs,” the Court said. “Therefore, a prima facie case is made out by the Plaintiffs. The balance of convenience lies in the Plaintiffs' favour, and irreparable harm and injury would be caused to the Plaintiffs if the Defendants are not restrained from continuing with their infringing activities,” it added.Title: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD. & ANR v. WWW.SAMSUNGSERVICECENTREHVDERABACOM & ORSCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1254Click here to read order

Delhi High Court Restrains Websites Offering Repair Services From Infringing 'Samsung' Trademarks, Copyright

Nupur Thapliyal

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