Thread: Indian Company Sues Google re AdWords Program

It's not the first case in which Google has been sued due to trademarked keywords showing up on its AdWords Program. However, I think the latest company to sue Google is overreaching....

Consim Info (formerly BharatMatrimony) owns popular websites such as BharatMatrimony.com and TamilMatrimony.com. According to MediaNama, Consim has been granted an interim junction against Google at the Madras High Court. The temporary injunction stops Google from allowing Consim's competitors from advertising on the AdWords Program using Consim's "trademarked" terms.

Trademarking the domain "TamilMatrimony.com" is one thing. However, it seems to me that Consim is trying to obtain a monopoly over generic terms such "Tamil Matrimony" and "Telugu Matrimony." What's even more worrisome is this paragraph from the Medianama article:

Janakiraman declined to comment - saying that we're digging too deep - on whether the company is planning to trademark names of 250 odd domains which they announced recently under the name CommunityMatrimony.com, including several India centric keywords like like AgarwalMatrimony, BrahminMatrimony, KayasthaMatrimony etc.

You can see the long list of domains here. Again, trademarking these domains is one thing, however I wouldn't be surprised if Consim is going to try and claim a monopoly over these generic terms as well.

What's ironic is that Consim is guilty of the same thing they are accusing their competitors of.

BTW, last year Consim won the domain TamilMatrimony.co.in in an INDRP dispute. Looking back at that case, I'm now wonder if Consim actually owns a registered trademark for "Tamil Matrimony" or whether it's "TamilMatrimony.com" and/or "TamilMatrimony.in" that they own. The INDRP decision does not have enough information on this, which is frustrating.

Consim is also suing JeevanSathi.com, Shaadi.com and SimplyMarry.com, ie. their competitors.

Please share your thoughts.

The above mentioned domains may be trademarked but how can a TM be obtained for generic term "tamil matrimony" or any other as such . These people seem to be going nuts . If this is the case they will be soon suing the leading newspapers TOI , HT etc. as well as many web portals.
Trademarking a domain is fine but not thje generic terms. Though matrimony / wedding etc. is a big business , this goes out a bit too far.

Sometime in the future someone will claim TM (greasing some palms reqd.) on the term bharat/tamil/brahmin etc. and go after them as to why they have it in their name

We think Bharat Matrimony is going wrong and doing the same mistakes which few years ago "INFOSYS" and ""______" (we have just edited this post to delete the name written here because CEO of this company said not to publish their reference here as in Tamil Matrimony case they are also party and it may came in the way of court proceedings) did ?

In both, above cases, once these company got trademark they went on to file cases on domain holders and companies using such term as if they granted monopoly on these terms ?

But in both above cases they restrain by courts in India for using these terms as exclusive to their own , Trademark granted to these companies to safeguard their interest and not to take away others right in generic terms?

If someone files before the TradeMark registry for cancellation of these trademark of Bharat Matrimony , we are sure they will loose TM too. And we are sure that Indian TM registry not granted them any exclusive right.

We will check tomorrow TM Registry database and let you know that any exceptions are granted on these trademark by TM Registry. As TM Registry when grants such terms (like Tamil Matrimony) as TM they clearly mentions on TM certificate that so and so words are not given exclusive right on that.

We just have talk with two companies CEO who are party in Tamil Matrimony case they informed that case are kept for hearing on 5th Oct. and after hearing their side of story and case details we are helping them to get them TM search data and other required material, it seems this case result will help domain owners in India in future. Just wait. we too are filing objection before TM registry for some of their TM as few of them are also used by us like AgarwalMatrimony.in and MatrimonyIndia.com.

PS : please note above post written without going into the details of the case, this is just first reaction to the report.

Originally Posted by Mitsu

We will check tomorrow TM Registry database and let you know that any exceptions are granted on these trademark by TM Registry. As TM Registry when grants such terms (like Tamil Matrimony) as TM they clearly mentions on TM certificate that so and so words are not given exclusive right on that.

Thanks Mitsu - I'm looking forward to your update! It will be reassuring if we hear that the TM Registry didn't actually give Consim exclusive right to use "Tamil Matrimony" but only the right to use "TamilMatrimony.com" or "TamilMatrimony.in" etc.

Sorry ! Just gone through the details of the case and it says :

Consim said that it had <>“trademarked www.tamilmatrimony.com, www.telegumatrimony, www.bharatrimony.com, www.bengalimatrimony.com, www.muslimmatrimony.com. Hence, Google should not allow ads on those trademarks”.<>

so Bharat Matrimony's case is for If a user types <> ‘www.tamilmatrimony.com’ <> in the Google search field, it throws up Ad links to websites like shaadi.com and simplymarry.com. The company has approached the court saying Google should not allow its competition to be linked to the trademarks of BharatMatrimony or use the trademark as their heading.

If you go from above perspective then Bharat Matrimony is right (as their TM is 'www.tamilmatrimony.com’ and some one is typing exact term) but if they claim exclusivity on term TAMIL MATRIMONY then they are wrong. If Google show advt.on term 'TAMIL MATRIMONY' and Bharat matrimony objects to same then they are wrong as their trademark is different then the search term.

Mitsu, I don't know that Consim is only talking about users searching their domain name as it's my understanding that Consim also wants Google to remove terms like 'Tamil matrimony' and 'Telugu matrimony' from its keywords suggestion tool. See:

The case is not just related to matrimony domain names but also to the specific matrimony keywords related to matrimonial business owned by Consiminfo. Thus Consim wants its competitors and specially Google in general to even avoid competitive advertising for terms like ‘Tamil matrimony’, ‘Telegu matrimony’, etc by asking Google to remove the alleged terms from its key words suggestion tool programme.

Source: WATBlog.com

I suppose things will become clearer once we receive more information.

We have ask for copy of case papers may be by tomorrow we will get ? then only we can get more details....

Originally Posted by Mitsu

We have ask for copy of case papers may be by tomorrow we will get ? then only we can get more details....

That's great!

we have gone through the case papers and it seems that Bharat Matrimony is relying on TM which is more or less the domain name. For security reason we are not keeping court order copy here but we are giving the copy of TM Bharat Matrimony relying on ?.

Thanks for the document Mitsu. So if I understand correctly, Consim (aka BharatMatrimony) owns Indian trademarks such as:

TAMILMATRIMONY
TELUGUMATRIMONY
URDUMATRIMONY
(ie with the words together).

However, they don't own trademarks for the generic terms:
TAMIL MATRIMONY
TELUGU MATRIMONY
URDU MATRIMONY
(ie separate words / generic terms)

Have I understood correctly? Did Consim have to disclaim exclusive use of these terms in the trademark applications?