Delhi Court Restrains Global Operators Using 'Yoga Alliance' Name; Orders Google, Meta to Block URLs

A Delhi Commercial Court has granted interim relief to Swami Vidyanand, the proprietor of the “Yoga Alliance” and “Yoga Alliance International” trademarks, by restraining several web operators from using domain names, websites and social media pages that were found to be identical or deceptively similar to his marks. The court also directed domain registrars and major internet platforms to take down or block the offending links in India. In an order dated December 6, 2025, District Judge Savita Rao of the Commercial Court at Saket said the material on record showed a strong prima facie case in favour of Vidyanand. Allowing the continued use of the disputed names, the court aid, would dilute his goodwill and reputation and cause irreparable harm, making an interim injunction necessary.Vidyanand had moved the vourt alleging trademark infringement and passing off. He said he has used the “Yoga Alliance” and “Yoga Alliance International” names since 2005 and holds several Indian trademark registrations along with common-law rights. According to him, one Christiana Amodei and associated operators were running multiple websites, domain names and social media pages under names such as “yogaallianceinternationalregistry.com” and “australianyogaalliance,” which targeted Indian users, listed Indian yoga schools and teachers, and promoted paid events in India.The court noted that Amodei and the other operators did not appear despite being served notice. GoDaddy, the domain name registrar, told the Court that it only provides automated registration services and does not host website content. Google said it merely indexes third-party websites and can only de-index specific URLs, while Meta stated that Facebook and Instagram act on court orders or specific notifications and are protected as intermediaries under the IT Act.. After reviewing the material, including a January 18, 2024 order of an Italian court directing Amodei to stop using the “YOGA ALLIANCE” mark and related names, the Delhi court held that a clear prima facie case of trademark infringement existed. It also found that the disputed websites and pages were interactive and commercially targeted Indian audiences. The court accepted that Vidyanand had established goodwill in the marks and held that allowing the continued use of the contested names would likely mislead users and damage the reputation attached to “Yoga Alliance” in India. The balance of convenience, the court said, lay in favour of granting protection. On the role of internet platforms, the court noted that they must comply once they receive a court order and referred to decisions including Swami Ramdev v. Facebook and Shreya Singhal v. Union of India to reiterate that they are obliged to take action upon judicial directions. Consequently, the court restrained Cristiana Amodei and all associated entities from using “Yoga Alliance”, “Yoga Alliance International” and other identical or deceptively similar names as domain names, website names, account names, hashtags, meta tags or corporate identifiers. It also directed GoDaddy, Google, Facebook and Instagram to take down, block or disable access to the URLs mentioned in the suit. For URLs created outside India, the platforms were asked to ensure that the links are not accessible within India. The order additionally permits future infringing links to be removed if Vidyanand files an affidavit and notifies the platforms. Case Title: Swami Vidyanand v. Cristiana Amodei Chiarello & Ors. Case Number: CS (COMM) No. 317/2025 For Plaintiff: Advocates Anshuman Upadhyay, Naseem Sheikh and Rahul Singh For Defendants: Advocate Nikita Rathi for GoDaddy Inc., Advocate Raunaq Kamath for Google and Advocate Akhil Shandilya for Meta Click Here To Read/Download Order

Delhi Court Restrains Global Operators Using 'Yoga Alliance' Name; Orders Google, Meta to Block URLs

Ayushi Shukla

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