Good ruling by Delhi HC. There's no point in having a trademark if someone can just pay some ₹₹ to hijack users looking for that trademark.
The Delhi High Court just ruled against Google in a trademark case that every Indian founder needs to know about!!
Hindware sued because searches for "Hindware" returned competitor ads - Cera, Grohe, above their own listing. Customers looking specifically for Hindware were being intercepted at the moment of highest intent.
The court ruled it trademark infringement. Competitor keyword bidding on your brand name is now legally actionable in India.
Search your brand name on Google right now.
If a competitor's ad appears before yours, you have a case, and your competitor has a problem.
This reshapes performance marketing in India. Keyword bidding on competitor names is standard practice across every category - beauty, fintech, edtech, D2C.
The brands doing it most aggressively are also the ones most exposed to this ruling. Let's see how this pans out.