Hima Kohli ORDER
Hima Kohli, J.
I.A. 25513/2015 (by the plaintiff u/O XI R 1(4) CPC)
Subject to the plaintiff filing the additional documents within two weeks from today, the application is allowed and disposed of.
I.A. 25514/2015 (exemption)
1. Counsel for the plaintiff states that she does not wish to press this application.
2. The application is disposed of.
I.A. 25515-25516/2015 (exemption)
Subject to the plaintiff filing the certified/typed/legible/English translation of the documents annexed with the plaint within four weeks, the applications are allowed and disposed of.
CS(COMM) 36/2015
3. The plaint be registered as a suit.
4. Issue summons in the suit in the prescribed form to the defendant on the plaintiff filing the process fee within one week, by ordinary process, speed post and courier, returnable before the Joint Registrar on 15th January, 2016 for completion of service and pleadings in the suit and for submitting a statement of admission/denial of the documents.
5. The summons to be issued to the defendant shall indicate that the written statement be filed within the prescribed timeline, with a copy to the other side, who shall file a replication thereto before the next date of hearing.
6. List in Court on 8th March, 2016 for framing of issues.
7. The parties shall exchange their respective issues proposed to be framed one week before the next date of hearing and produce the same in Court.
I.A. 25511/2015 (by the plaintiff u/O XXXIX R 1 and 2 CPC)
8. The plaintiff has instituted the accompanying suit for permanent injunction and declaration against the defendant praying inter alia that he be restrained from infringement of the trademark, passing off, unfair competition, infringement of copyright etc.
9. Ms. Salhotra, learned counsel for the plaintiff states that the plaintiff is a leading internet company incorporated in the year 1995 that runs the job portal, "NAUKRI.COM" which is engaged in on-line classifieds. The plaintiff operates through 62 offices in 43 cities in India and overseas offices in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Baharain etc and employs over 4000 persons. The domain name, "NAUKRI.COM" is stated to have been created by the plaintiff in the year 1997, to provide online recruitment classifieds and related services for job seekers and corporate customers. Over the years, the portal, commonly known as "NAUKRI" has grown to be the country's leading job portal having as on 30.06.2015, a database of about 42 million job seekers. It is submitted that the stock ticker for the plaintiff's shares listed on the National Stock Exchange is the word "NAUKRI". The word "NAUKRI" also forms the most significant and distinctive part of the plaintiff's subsidiary, Naukri Internet Services Private Limited, which was incorporated in the year 1999.
10. The plaintiff is also the owner of a number of domain names other than "NAUKRI.COM" which contain the word, "NAUKRI" as a prominent feature as detailed in para 5 of the plaint. The plaintiff is the registered proprietor of the word mark, "NAUKRI" in respect of computer software in classes 9 and 16 and had applied in January, 2004 for registration of the trademark, "NAUKRI" that is pending consideration. The word, "NAUKRI" is stated to form an essential and distinctive part of the plaintiff's several registered trademarks as have been set out in para 7 of the plaint. The said registrations are valid and subsisting and vest in the plaintiff, the exclusive right to use the trademarks in relation to its goods and services.
11. Learned counsel submits that the plaintiff extensively advertises its services under the "NAUKRI" mark. In the year 2014-2015, it had spent over Rs. 14 crores to promote "NAUKRI.COM" website and earned revenue over Rs. 340 crores. The annual revenue earned and the advertisement expenditure incurred by the plaintiff for the years 2008-09 to 2014-15 have been placed in a tabulated form in para 9 of the plaint. Learned counsel for the plaintiff states that by virtue of extensive use, advertisements, registrations and the quality of services rendered thereunder, the trademark and domain name, "NAUKRI" has become exclusively identified with the plaintiff.
12. As for the defendant herein, it is submitted that the defendant is an Indian national and registrant of the domain name, www.naukrinews.com. He is also the Managing Director of a company by the name of Mellcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd., which was at one time, a customer of the plaintiff's job portal, "NAUKRI.COM" and the said company was used by the defendant to misuse the plaintiff's database and to promote its own activities under the domain name, "naukrinews.com". On 15.01.2011, the plaintiff had received an e-mail from one of its customers, wherein it was stated that he had registered himself with "NAUKRI.COM", but he had been receiving emails from other consultancies for the same profiles, which were on the plaintiff's website. The plaintiff immediately wrote an e-mail to the defendant calling upon him to cease and desist from sending e-mails to job seekers, who are registered with "NAUKRI.COM". However, he refused to make compliances. Thereafter, the plaintiff started receiving several complaints from its disgruntled clients with regard to the defendant's attempt to use their job profiles on his job portal, www.naukrinews.com without their permission. The details of some of the complaints received by the plaintiff have been placed in a tabulated form in para 16 of the plaint.
13. Learned counsel states that the plaintiff has also ascertained that there is an application pending for the label mark, 
of which the word, "NAUKRI" is an essential part in the name, naukrinews.com. The domain names that are being used by the defendant where the word, "NAUKRI" features as a prominent word have been detailed in para 23 of the plaint.
14. Between the years 2011 to 2013, the plaintiff had been receiving sporadic complaints but in the year 2014, as the number of complaints shot up, a complaint had to be filed with the police, which is pending investigation. In the year 2015, the plaintiff again received some complaints due to which, it has decided to take legal action against the defendant by instituting the present suit. It is submitted that the modus operandi adopted by the defendant is that his companies register themselves as prospective employers on the plaintiff's website "NAUKRI.COM" under different names and thereby access its database. Thereafter, they use the said database to bombard the customers of "NAUKRI.COM" with spam e-mails from domain names like, naukrinews.com that are similar to "NAUKRI.COM" and the unsuspecting customers unwittingly pay up for the said services to the point that sometimes, they have been told that the job portal, naukrinews.com is a sister concern of the plaintiff. It is only when the said customers encounter deficiency in services that they realise that there is no connection between the plaintiff and the defendant.
15. It is in this background where the plaintiff's customers are being duped due to the fraud allegedly committed by the defendant that the plaintiff has instituted the present suit. Learned counsel for the plaintiff contends that use of the word, "NAUKRI" in relation to domain names which have no connection with the plaintiff is an infringement of the plaintiff's well known and registered trademark, "NAUKRI" and amounts to passing of the defendant's services as that of the plaintiff, thus resulting in confusion in the market.
16. Issue notice to the non-applicant/defendant on the plaintiff filing the process fee within one week, by ordinary process, speed post and courier, returnable on the date fixed.
17. Having regard to the submissions made on behalf of the plaintiff and upon perusing the averments made in the plaint and the documents placed on record, this Court is prima facie of the opinion that the plaintiff is entitled to grant of an ex parte ad interim injunction in its favour.
18. Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, the defendant, his agents, officers, employees etc. are restrained from using the mark, 
NAUKRINEWS.COM, NAUKRINEWS.CO.IN, NAUKRINEWS.IN or any other mark comprising of the word, "NAUKRI" as a prefix, suffix or as an integral part of the domain name/trade mark/corporate name/trading style etc. that is likely to deceive/confuse the public at large into believing that the defendant's services are in some manner connected with the plaintiff's registered trademark, "NAUKRI" and/or job portal, "NAUKRI.COM".
19. Provisions of Order XXXIX Rule 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure be complied with within two weeks from the date of receipt of this order.
I.A. 25512/2015 (by the plaintiff u/O XXVI R-9 CPC)
20. This application has been filed by the plaintiff praying inter alia for appointment of Local Commissioners to visit the premises of the defendant to seize the computer systems and/or other evidence of infringement.
21. Accordingly, Mr. Amitesh Kumar, Advocate (Mobile No. 9654954981) is appointed as a Local Commissioner for executing the commission in respect of the premises of the defendant situated at B-297, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi. Similarly, Mr. R.S. Rathi, Advocate (Mobile No. 9810868733) is appointed as a Local Commissioner for executing the commission in respect of the premises of the defendant situated at B-296, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi.
22. The Local Commissioners shall visit the premises of the defendant, without prior notice to them, and inspect the hard disc of the computers, compact discs and other storage media/replicating media as found to contain the e-mails, and/or details of online money transfer from job seekers and/or the record of job seekers and/or any other evidence pertaining to the use of NAUKRINEWS.COM, with the help of the technical experts provided by the plaintiff.
23. The Local Commissioners shall symbolically seize the computer CPUs, hard discs, compact discs and/or other storage/replicating media and release the same on superdari to be kept in safe custody by the defendant. It is clarified that the computer systems shall not be sealed in a manner so as to prevent them from being used, unless the Local Commissioners deem it appropriate after considering the circumstances that may arise during the execution of the commissions, e.g., if undue resistance is faced, if the defendant attempts to delete or conceal the infringing data, etc.
24. It is open to the Local Commissioners to have the infringing data copied separately and ensure that this electronic version is kept in a sealed form, and is produced in Court. In case of any obstruction, the local police shall render all necessary assistance to them. In case the computers are protected by any password, the defendant shall disclose the same to enable the Local Commissioners and the technical experts of the plaintiff to access them.
25. The fee of the Local Commissioners for executing the commission is fixed at ` 75,000/- each, apart from the out of pocket expenses that shall be borne by the plaintiff. The Local Commissioners shall file their reports within four weeks after executing the commissions.
26. The application is disposed of.
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