The suit was filed by the plaintiff, ADOBE, INC against the Defendant, one Namase Patel for infringing the plaintiff’s ADOBE mark by his domain names www.addobe.com and www.adobee.com. The Court held that there can possibly be no dispute about the fact that the domain names www.addobe.com and www.adobee.com are confusingly similar to the trademark “ADOBE” of the Plaintiff and, therefore, infringed the “ADOBE” mark and the adobe domain names of the plaintiff within the meaning of Section 29 of the Trademarks Act.
The Court in one of the rare orders, granted exemplary damages amounting to 2,00,01,000/- as claimed by the plaintiff in the suit. The Court stated that these damages are intended to be deterrent in nature given the nature of activities of defendant and the fact that he stands recognized, even in foreign jurisdictions, as being an inveterate and habitual cyber-squatter and domain name infringer.
Justice C Hari Shankar permanently restrained Namase Patel and any other person associated with him from registering any domain names which incorporate the plaintiff’s trademark. The Court ordered that access to the websites www.addobe.com and www.adobee.com remain blocked. The court further directed that the said domain names be transferred to Adobe to avoid further misuse by third parties after their expiry.
