On January 17, The High Court of Delhi passed a significant Order granting an ad interim injunction in favour of Play Games24x7 protecting its Intellectual Property rights in its games RummyCircle and My11Circle from being adversely ranked by Skoch Group on the basis of a self-created gaming framework and ranking mechanism.
The matter was related to the Skoch group’s advertisement published in media on December 13, 2024, casting aspersions on the safety and efficacy of its games by ranking them adversely on the basis of a self-serving, arbitrary, and admittedly subjective ranking system.
Play Games24x7 had further contented that the purpose of this defamatory, disparaging, and libelous advertisement was to invite paid participation from various gaming companies to the Skoch group’s consultancy services by fear mongering. Play Games24x7 further contended that, the jury/task force responsible for the so-called rankings included employees of the Play Games24x7 competitors, whose games were ranked at the top, highlighting a clear conflict of interest and bias.
Before granting an interim injunction, the court reviewed the compliance and security measures adopted by Play Games24x7 and observed that the rankings in advertisements prima facie unfairly undermined its reputation and goodwill.
Furthermore, the Court observed that Advertisement prima facie seeks to commercially solicit business for its consultancy arm, indicating an intent to derive undue commercial benefits.
The Order emphasized that the Defendants, being a private body lacked any governmental authority to issue any compliance framework let alone rank any compliance therewith based on an arbitrarily devised criterion.
The court held that Play Games24x7 would suffer irreparable harm and injury, in case reference to its trademarks RummyCircle and My11Circle were not redacted from the Advertisement.
The matter is listed before the Court for hearing on April 29, 2025.
