‘UPSTOX’ trademarks, work marks, and copyrighted photos are protected against infringement by the Delhi High Court’s interim decision. RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd., an Indian brokerage company that provides stock trading services, is the owner of the online trading application “UPSTOX.”
According to the plaintiff, RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd., it and its group firms own and run UPSTOX, a platform that allows investors to trade stocks and do other financial and investing operations.
The lawsuit claimed that regulatory bodies like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI), and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) oversee these activities.
In order to increase the awareness and confidence surrounding the Upstox brand, RKSV emphasized its continuous investments in branding, marketing, and strategic efforts. It further underlined that the site has a solid reputation in the market and has over 1 crore users.
RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd. claimed that unidentified defendants (John Does/defendant no. 1) had violated its registered “UPSTOX” trademarks, word marks, and copyright in addition to engaging in passing off. The plaintiff asserted that it had been the subject of several complaints about various domain names, Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups, and Telegram groups that were impersonating the business. These dishonest organizations were charged with misleading customers and users by abusing the business’s name, logo, trademark, and copyrighted content, resulting in monetary losses.
In order to defraud unwary clients, the plaintiff claimed that unidentified defendants had registered many infringement-related domain names and were running phony and fraudulent websites, WhatsApp groups, and Telegram groups under the moniker RKSV. These dishonest organizations are allegedly enticing people with claims of different benefits pertaining to stocks, initial public offerings, and other financial endeavors. Gname, BIZCN, and JUMING (defendant nos. 2 to 4) are the domain name registrars where the infringing domain names are registered.
In light of the numerous documents the plaintiff had submitted, which purportedly demonstrated the defendants’ unlawful use of its mark “to dupe and defraud people,” Justice Mini Pushkarna wrote in her ruling:
“In view of the above circumstances, the plaintiff has demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and in case no ex-parte ad-interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff will suffer an irreparable loss. Further, the balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants“.
The plaintiff also claimed that the unidentified defendants had been violating its copyright and trademark with the express intent of misleading the business and its clients, harming its reputation. Additionally, it emphasized that the violation raised serious questions about the privacy and security of its trade name, domain name, and logo.
Until the next hearing date, the court prohibited the unidentified defendants from violating the plaintiff’s “UPSTOX trademarks, word marks, or any other deceptively similar marks,” which include its “domain names, websites, social media handles, hashtags, email addresses, bank accounts, or any business papers.” The plaintiff’s copyrighted photos of the UPSTOX brand were also forbidden by the court from being reproduced or published by the unidentified defendants.
The court further ordered the domain name registrars (defendant nos. 2 to 4) to reveal information on the registrant of the infringing domain names, including payment details and KYC documents, and to suspend the domain names of the unidentified defendants.
The court further ordered a number of banks, including SBI, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra (defendant nos. 5 to 18), to provide the KYC documents and bank statements of the beneficiaries and account holders and to freeze the bank accounts of the unidentified defendants.
Additionally, the court ordered Telegram to shut down all channels, groups, and profiles connected to the unidentified defendants.
The Court set a hearing date of May 20, 2025, and sent notice to the defendants in the interim application. In the primary lawsuit, summonses were also issued.
Case title: MS RKSV Securities India Pvt. Ltd. Upstox vs. John Does And Ors.
(CS(COMM) 1215/2024, I.A. 49976/2024)
Counsels for Plaintiff: Senior advocate Balbir Singh, with advocates M. P. Devnath, Abhishek Anand, Rahul Kumar, Karan Sachdev and Monica Benjamin
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