The Delhi High Court recently directed Google LLC to suspend URLs of certain Google forms seeking invitations for a Starbucks franchise. Notably, Starbucks does not operate on a franchise model in India. 

Justice Anish Dayal observed that Starbucks was entitled to relief on account of the forms being posted by imposters to elicit private information and data from the general public.

The Delhi High Court ordered that the plaintiffs would be entitled to the relief they seek in this application, on account of not only that these Google Forms are being posted by imposters in order to elicit information relating to Starbucks franchise but also for seeking private information and data from the general public, which cannot be countenanced.

The Delhi High Court was hearing an application in a trademark and copyright infringement suit by Starbucks against unknown john doe. The court in April 2023 had passed an interim injunction in favour of the coffee chain. Nonetheless, after certain entities were found impersonating Starbucks franchisees through Google forms, it moved an application to have the URLs to the forms suspended.

Reportedly, the imposters were circulating Google Forms which had the heading as Starbucks franchise and mentions that one can apply on the form to get more information about taking a franchise of Starbucks. 

Advocate Rima Majumdar and Advocate Shilpi Sinha appearing for Starbucks stated that the imposters were seeking information from the general public to apply for Starbucks franchise opportunities, which do not exist in India. Meanwhile, Advocates Neel Mason, Vihan Dang and Ujjawal Bhargava representing Google LLC stated that they had no issue with the relief sought, as long as the URLs which were listed by Starbucks related to the subject matter of the suit.

Advocate Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, Advocate Srish Kumar Mishra,  Advocate Alexander Mathai Paikaday and Krishnan V appeared for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology while Advocate Chhavi Arora represented National Internet Exchange of India.

The Delhi High Court recently awarded Starbucks Corporation compensation about ₹2 lakh and ₹9 lakh cash in a case of trademark infringement suit where registered trademark ‘frappuccino’ was used by another company

 Starbuck Corporation was looking forward to a permanent injunction so that the defendant cannot use FRAPPUCCINO trademark of the company.

The case was heard by the bench of  Justice Jyoti Singh. The case was filed Starbucks Corporation against one Teaquilla A Fashion Cafe, for using its it’s registered trademark “FRAPPUCCINO” either alone or with a prefix or suffix to confuse people

Starbucks in its petition had pleaded that FRAPPUCCINO is a well-known trademark under section 2(1)(zg) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, on account of extensive use, global presence, trademark registrations in foreign jurisdictions and in India. It further said that FRAPPUCCINO is an important product of the Starbucks family and protecting the copy right was the need of the hour.

The Court observed that the Teaquilla A Fashion Cafe (Defendants) was  guilty of infringement and thus will have to pay damage to the tune of Rs.2,00,000 , along with this Starbucks asked for Rs 9,60,000 that included fee of the lawyer and court.

Starbucks has been selling this product around the globe with this name and usage of this by name was infringement of trademark.

The cause that triggered the filing of the suit was the information that the Plaintiff received in November 2018 that Defendant No.2 was operating a cafe or restaurant under the name ‘Cafe TeaQuila– A Fashion Cafe’, wherein Defendant No.1 was selling beverages under the name ‘BUTTER SCOTCH FRAPPUCCINO’ and ‘HAZEL NUT FRAPPUCCINO’, without Plaintiff’s permission, authorization or license