Burger King Corporation vs. Swapnil Patil & Ors. C.S. (COMM) 303/2022 & I.A. 17896/2023

Burger King Corporation, the plaintiff, sought protection for its ‘BURGER KING’ trademark, Crescent Logo Design, and Hamburger Refresh Design Logo. The Defendants were alleged to be operating unauthorized websites using the Burger King trademark, defrauding individuals, and illegally using the Plaintiff’s intellectual property. The Court had previously directed the Cyber Crime Division, Mumbai police to investigate these fraudulent activities. Subsequently, the Plaintiff filed applications seeking further orders to restrain the illegal use of domain names, including ‘burgerkingind.co.in’ and ‘burgerkingfranchisee.com’.

In response to the compelling circumstances, the Court issued several directions preventing Defendants from using the mark ‘BURGER KING’ and logo for fraudulent activities which are as follows:

1. An interim injunction restraining ‘burgerkingind.co.in’ and ‘burgerkingfranchisee.com’ from using the Plaintiff’s mark/logos for any purpose, including collecting money under the guise of issuing fake franchises.

2. Suspension/blocking of the domain name ‘burgerkingind.co.in’ by GoDaddy.com LLC.
3. Blocking of the email address ‘info@burgerkingind.co.in’ if accessed through GoDaddy.com LLC.
4. Suspension/blocking of the domain name ‘burgerkingfranchisee.com’ by FastDomain Inc.
5. Prohibition on the registration of domain names/websites containing the words ‘Burger’ and ‘King’ under the ‘.co.in’ or ‘.in’ extensions.
6. Freezing of bank account and disclosure of the account holder’s identity.
7. A Mareva injunction to freeze the bank accounts.
8. Authorization for the Cyber Cell/IFSO Delhi Police to investigate and take legal action against specific mobile numbers.
9. Issuance of blocking orders by DoT and MeitY for the identified domain names/websites, to be enforced by all ISPs.

The said Order reflects the Court’s commitment to protecting well-known trademarks being infringed by owners of rogue websites. By granting injunction and issuing directions, the Court aims to prevent further misuse of the ‘BURGER KING’ mark and safeguard the rights of the registered proprietor in the domain names.