Google Challenges ‘Hindware Trademark’ Ruling

Google failed to secure an interim relief from the Delhi High Court over the Hindware trademark dispute. 

The bench consisting of Justices V Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora  said it would hear Google’s challenge in detail, and posted the matter for further hearing on 24 July.

“We are appealing the Delhi High Court’s order, which diverges from established legal precedents in India. Our ads policies reflect standard practices that enable competition and give consumers more choices. We look forward to presenting our position to the court,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Google had moved the court to challenge the previous HC verdict that ordered the company to pay a penalty of INR 30 lakh for the misuse of the “Hindware” trademark as a keyword within its Google Ads search module. 

This ruling concludes a legal battle lasting nearly ten years, started by the bathware brand Hindware. The company alleged that Google permitted competitors, specifically Cera, Grohe, and Omkara, to use its brand name as an adword, causing search traffic intended for Hindware to be redirected to rival websites.

The court noted that by allowing competitors to bid on the “Hindware” trademark, Google effectively diverted potential customers away from the said brand. While the competing firms have reportedly settled with Hindware, Google LLC and Google India remained the defendants in the case.

The case is being closely watched by the industry as the final outcome will have a lasting impact on the adtech industry. 

Zerodha CEO Nitin Kamath in a post had noted that his company has faced similar challenges for over a decade.

“This has been a big challenge for companies, both big and small. Even today, if you search for Zerodha, you will see search results from competitors. This has been happening for well over a decade,” he wrote in the post.

“Although it is hard to quantify, we have lost a lot of business to this. Think about what happens. Whenever someone searches for “Zerodha”, the traffic should rightfully come to Zerodha. But what often happens is that the first couple of results on Google Search are ads, leading the customer to a competitor’s website. In the process, we lose business that should have come to us… This is made worse by the fact that we do not advertise,” he added.

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