Sporta Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (SPORTA) filed a suit for trademark infringement & passing off against Unfading OPC Private Limited (UNFADING) seeking permanent injunction restraining UNFADING from using the mark ‘SattaDream11’ or any deceptively similar variant thereof, as the trade mark, trade name, domain name or on social media, email addresses.
SPORTA is a private limited company having its registered office at Mumbai and wholly owned subsidiary of the Plaintiff No. 2, whereas, the Plaintiff No.2 having a registered trade mark ‘Dream 11’ and registered domain www.dream11.com since 17.03.2008 is a company incorporated in the United States of America.
SPORTA has been running a fantasy sports platform Dream 11 since 2012, whereas, UNFADING was the owner and operator of the website
www.sattadream11.com and was offering sports betting services on their website. Along with the aforesaid, UNFADING was also using the mark ‘
Satta Dream11’ and Logo
. SPORTA was aggrieved of the fact that Unfading added a prefix ‘Satta’ to its registered mark ‘
Dream11’ and by doing so UNFADING was riding upon SPORTA’s goodwill and tarnishing the reputation/image of its registered trademark ‘
Dream11’ as the general public were associating ‘Dream11’ with the unlawful activities carried out by UNFADING. It was further claimed by SPORTA that the nature of UNFADING’s services were illegal in India as betting services provided by UNFADING included putting money and getting rewarded simply based on occurring/non-occurring of an event which scarcely required any expertise/skill. On the other hand,
Dream11, being a fantasy game, was a talent based contest and included selection of a different team altogether at the decision of the participant.
Accordingly, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court granted an interim injunction in favour of Sporta and restrained UNFADING from using the mark ‘SattaDream11’ or any deceptively similar variant thereof, as the trademark, trade name, domain name or on social media, email addresses or in any other manner which amounted to infringement of SPORTA’s ‘Dream11’ trademarks or passing off thereto, till the next date of hearing.