Delhi HIgh Court Orders Scientico To Remove Alfa Therm's Photographs From Website, IndiaMart Listings

The Delhi High Court has directed Scientico to remove from its website, IndiaMart listings and other online platforms photographs that waste management systems manufacturer Alfa Therm Limited alleged had been copied from its website without authorisation.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela granted interim protection to Alfa Therm after prima facie finding that photographs displayed on Scientico's website were identical to photographs that had earlier appeared on Alfa Therm's website.

"the defendant who is also stated to be in the identical trade, appears to have lifted the photographs as it is from the website of the plaintiff and pasted them on its own website."

The Court further observed:

"There is no reason why the defendant, particularly on its official website will display photographs, prima facie, appear to belong to the plaintiff. At this stage, the said use appears to be not bona fide."

Alfa Therm told the Court that it has been engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing and supplying environmental and waste management systems since 1994. According to the company, original photographs of machinery and installations at customer sites were taken by an employee in the course of employment and used on its website and promotional material.

The dispute arose after Alfa Therm claimed to have discovered Scientico's website in March 2026. The company alleged that Scientico, which operates in the same line of business, had reproduced several photographs showing plant and machinery installations executed by Alfa Therm.

Before approaching the court, Alfa Therm said it contacted Scientico by email and telephone on March 27, 2026, requesting it to stop using the photographs. A cease-and-desist notice followed on March 30.

Despite this, the photographs allegedly continued to appear on the defendant's website. Alfa Therm also claimed that the same photographs were being displayed on Scientico's IndiaMart page in April 2026.

To support its claim of ownership, the company placed screenshots of its website on record. These showed the photographs had been published at least since July 2019.

The images are related to projects executed for Nashik Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra, En-Cler Biomedical Waste Private Limited in Gujarat and SESG in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Court noted that the screenshots carried Alfa Therm's trademark and logo. It found no reason at this stage to disbelieve the company's assertion that the photographs had been commissioned by it.

After examining the material placed on record, the Court prima facie concluded that the photographs originally pertained to Alfa Therm and that the company appeared to own the copyright in them.

The court restrained Scientico from reproducing, copying, publishing, displaying, communicating to the public or otherwise using the photographs.

It also directed the company to remove all infringing photographs and content from its website, IndiaMart listings and any other online platforms under its control.

The matter will next be taken up before the Joint Registrar on August 12 for completion of pleadings and service. The case is listed before the Court on November 16.