Delhi HC restrains confectionary Facebake from using Fb mark

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has permanently restrained the owner of a confectionary under the name 'Facebake' from using any mark which is deceptively similar to that of social media company Meta Platforms, Inc's 'Facebook' mark. Justice Navin Chawla, while dealing with a lawsuit by Meta, said that 'Facebook' is a well-known trademark in the country and the overall visual representation adopted by the defendant, Noufel Malol the owner of Facebake, depicted the mala fide intent in obtaining unfair advantage.

The judge noted that the use of a mark similar to 'Facebook' can lead to an unwary consumer being at least interested in taking note of the defendant as having some kind of connection with the plaintiff and the mala fide intent of the defendant was also evident from the fact that after an interim injunction was passed against the use of 'Facebake', the defendant changed the mark to 'Facecake' and chose not to defend the suit.

In the present case, though there is some distinction between the marks of the plaintiff and the defendants, the overall visual representation adopted by the defendants, clearly depicts the mala fide intent of the defendants in obtaining unfair advantage by the use of the mark similar to that of the plaintiff and also leads to the dilution of the mark of the plaintiff. It can lead to an unwary consumer being at least interested in taking note of the defendants as having some kind of connection with the plaintiff, said the court in its order dated July 6.