GoAir sues IndiGo for using similar domain name for its ticket booking site

Wadia group-owned airline operator GoAir has filed a lawsuit against its rival IndiGo over trademark infringement. GoAir, which operates ticket booking site goair.in, says that IndiGo, which runs goindigo.in, is drawing its potential customers towards IndiGo's site because of the similarity in the domain names. According to a report published by The Economic Times, GoAir filed the lawsuit in the Bombay High Court, which has ordered Interglobe Aviation, the owner of IndiGo, to file a reply on or before December 16, 2013.

According to sources, GoAir holds the right to use 'Go' in the domain name as it has bought the key word from search engine giant Google for a fee (Google shows results on the basis of the order of words or syllables that are typed into the search bar). The firm claims that when IndiGo uses the same keyword, its customers are getting diverted towards Indigo. Although GoAir tried to resolve the issue through talks, Indigo was not very forthcoming to settle it.

While legal battles over patent infringement are common among handset makers, trademark infringements are one-off cases. Recently, Los Angeles-based Just Fabulous Inc., which owns and operates shoes and apparel e-commerce platform JustFab.com, filed a lawsuit against New York-based Fab Inc. which runs lifestyle products e-tailer Fab.com, over trademark infringement. Fab.com is backed Times Internet Ltd, the digital arm of The Times of India Group.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)