Background
MakeMyTrip India Private Limited ("MMT") sued to protect its registered trademarks "MakeMyTrip" and its variants, which Booking.com B.V. was using as keywords on Google's Ads Program to trigger its own advertisements in Google search results. MMT's grievance was that a search for "MakeMyTrip" frequently displayed, as the very first result in the advertisement category, a sponsored listing for Booking.com — one of MMT's principal competitors. MMT argued that such use of its registered mark by a direct competitor amounted to trademark infringement.
Booking.com's Defense
Booking.com resisted the injunction on several grounds. It relied on the European Commission's decision in Case AT.40428 — Guess, dated 17 December 2018 (the "Guess decision"), for the proposition that there cannot be any restriction on the use of a trademark on the Google Ads Program as a keyword, including by competitors. Booking.com further contended that, apart from conducting business in India, it is also a global player in the hotel and airline booking space, and that an injunction restraining it from bidding on MMT's trademark would put it in contravention of the law of other foreign jurisdictions such as the European Union. It argued it ought to be permitted to file a reply before any order was passed, and that any restriction on the use of MMT's mark as a keyword would be contrary to competition law principles.
The Court's Reasoning
Justice Pratibha M. Singh was not persuaded that the Guess decision — a European competition law ruling addressing different legal questions under a different statutory framework — could displace the protections available to a registered trademark proprietor under Indian trademark law. The Court found a strong prima facie case of infringement: the deliberate use of a competitor's well-known registered mark as an invisible keyword, timed to trigger one's own sponsored advertisement, is calculated to divert consumer search traffic and free-ride on the goodwill MMT had built in its mark.
The Interim Injunction
The Court granted an interim injunction restraining Booking.com from using "MakeMyTrip" and its variants as keywords on the Google Ads Program, pending final disposition of the suit.
Significance
- The ruling confirms that Indian courts are willing to treat "invisible" keyword use — where the trademark itself never appears in the visible advertisement text — as a potential act of infringement, not merely a matter of competition law or advertising practice.
- Foreign competition law rulings addressing keyword advertising (such as the EU's Guess decision) will not automatically be read across into Indian trademark infringement analysis, which proceeds under its own statutory framework.
- Brand owners with strong search-driven consumer traffic should actively monitor competitor bidding on their registered marks as keywords, since this decision strengthens the basis for interim relief against such practices.