Consim.com, an Indian company which owns many Indian dating and matrimony sites, sued Google several weeks ago in India for selling keywords under some of its trademarked sites.
Last week, an Indian Court granted an interim (temporary) injunction against Google, restraining Google from selling keywords under the Indian Company’s trademarks including Bharatmatrimony.com.
The company’s suit also seeks damages from Google for selling keywords to competitors under its trademarked sites.
This case is particularly interesting for two reasons.
For one, I believe this is the first case that a court anywhere in the world, granted an injunction preventing the sale of ads under keywords due to trademark issues. Moreover, the court granted an injunction barring Google from showing the trademarked sites of Consim on Google’s keywords suggestion tool.
Second, many have looked at India as a place where the court system moved slowly and a good place to hide from trademark issues. Not only did the Indian court grant the injunction, but it did so quickly.
We will keep you updated as this case progresses.
