Google Appeals Delhi Court Trademark Ruling Over Ad Keywords

Google filed a 4,761-page appeal on July 7, 2026, challenging a May 22 ruling by the Delhi High Court that found the company liable for trademark infringement. The court originally ordered Google LLC and Google India to pay ₹30 lakh (approximately $31,600) in damages and litigation costs to sanitaryware manufacturer Hindware Limited. The dispute began after Hindware discovered rivals Grohe and Cera were purchasing its brand name as keywords to divert consumers to their own websites.

Justice Mini Pushkarna previously ruled that Google was not a passive intermediary and therefore lacked safe harbor protection under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The court found that Google actively suggested trademarked terms through its Keyword Planner Tool and profited from keyword auctions, leading Justice Pushkarna to conclude that the company attempted to sell something it did not own.

Google argues that keywords serve as internal backend triggers rather than public trademark use. The company contends that the ruling diverges from established legal precedents and would make India a sole outlier among major global jurisdictions, potentially granting trademark owners a monopoly over advertising space. A division bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice on the appeal on July 10 and scheduled the matter for final disposal on July 24.