The Delhi High Court has issued an order prohibiting FranchiseByte, a website that offers franchises for different Indian startups, from promoting or sharing videos that include the "WOW! MOMO" trademark.

Justice C Hari Shankar additionally ordered the website to remove all videos related to "WOW! MOMO" from its YouTube channel.

The court also instructed the defendant to remove all content related to the plaintiff and any mentions of the plaintiff or its "WOW! MOMO" trademark from its website, www.franchisebyte.com.

Justice Shankar was presiding over a lawsuit brought by Wow Momo Foods Private Limited against FranchiseByte. FranchiseByte had been representing itself as an agency capable of offering franchises for Wow Momo Foods Private Limited.

The lawsuit pertained to a video clip found on YouTube in which representatives of the defendant website were promoting franchises for Wow Momo's business.

Wow Momo's argument in the case was that the website's representatives, as shown in the video, asserted that anyone interested in becoming a franchisee of the fast food chain could simply click the link in the video description, provide their details, and a representative from Wow Momo would subsequently contact them.

The lawsuit claimed that when the link was clicked, it redirected the viewer to another webpage on the defendant's website, which contained information about purported Wow Momo franchises. It alleged that the use of Wow Momo's registered trademark, "WOW! MOMO," on the defendant's website amounted to trademark infringement.

It was further argued that the website deceived and misled individuals into believing that Wow Momo was offering franchises through their website, ultimately leading to the public being deceived or defrauded.

In issuing summons for the lawsuit, Justice Shankar noted that if an ex parte injunction in favor of Wow Momo was not granted, it would potentially allow the defendant website to persist in defrauding the public at the expense of Wow Momo.

The court stated that based on the claims made in the complaint, it appeared that the defendant was involved in a deliberate and calculated fraud. They were enticing individuals to apply for franchise opportunities with the plaintiff, even though no such franchises were actually being offered by the plaintiff. In the process, the defendant was also using the plaintiff's registered trademark without authorization. Given these circumstances, the court found that a case for granting an interlocutory injunction was justified.

Case: WOW MOMO Foods Private Ltd. Vs. Franchisebyte, CS(COMM) 778/2023, I.A. 21272/2023, I.A. 21273/2023, I.A.
21274/2023, I.A. 21275/2023, I.A. 21276/2023 & I.A. 21277/2023.