Delhi High Court Orders Suspension Of Fake 'lumlkai.com' Domain Impersonating Lumikai

The Delhi High Court has recently granted an ex parte ad interim injunction in favour of Lumikai, a venture capital firm operating in interactive media and gaming, in a trademark suit.

The court directed the suspension of the deceptively similar domain name “lumlkai.com”, observing that the plaintiffs had made out a prima facie case and that the impugned domain appeared to have been created to impersonate them and attempt to defraud.

The order was passed by Justice Jyoti Singh.

Lumikai Interactive II LLP and its affiliates submitted that the domain name “lumlkai.com”, differing from their official “lumikai.com” by a single letter 'l', had been registered by an unknown party to impersonate the plaintiffs.

They alleged that email addresses created using the impugned domain were used to approach a Limited Partner of one of the plaintiff entities, seeking transfer of funds into a Wells Fargo bank account maintained by the Defendants, which was deceptively similar to that of one of the Lumikai entities. The beneficiary name was also stated to be similar to that of the plaintiff entity.

The plaintiffs further submitted that a follow-up email was sent on the same day from the spoofed email address salone@lumlkai.com impersonating a member of the senior management and sharing a passcode to lend legitimacy to the transaction.

It was also alleged that the registrant used the services of a privacy protection service affiliated with the domain registrar to conceal its identity by masking registrant details through proxy information in the public WHOIS database.

In this backdrop, the plaintiffs moved the Court, seeking an ex parte ad interim injunction directing suspension of the fake domain name and any mirror, redirect, or alphanumeric variants.

The defendants included the unknown registrant of the impugned domain, a privacy service provider, domain registrars including GoDaddy and Wild West Domains, and government authorities responsible for electronic and telecom regulation.

The court recorded that the plaintiffs are the bona fide adopters and registered proprietors of the “LUMIKAI” mark and have been operating the domain www.lumikai.com since 2020.

Upon examining the record, the Court observed that the impugned domain name was ex facie similar to that of the plaintiffs, differing only by a minor alteration, namely, the use of a lower-case 'l' in place of 'i', and appeared to have been created solely to pass off as the plaintiffs.

"I am of the view that Plaintiffs have made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad interim injunction limited at this stage to prayer (f) in the application. Balance of convenience lies in favour of Plaintiffs and in case the relief sought is not granted, irreperable harm and injury will be caused to the Plaintiffs.,” the court held.

Accordingly, the court directed domain registrars GoDaddy and Wild West Domains, along with other concerned entities, to lock and suspend the domain name “lumlkai.com” within 36 hours of receipt of the order. They were also directed to disclose details of the registrant within three weeks and file a compliance affidavit within four weeks.

The court further directed that any mirror, redirect, or alphanumeric variants of the impugned domain name be blocked and suspended upon intimation by the plaintiffs.

The court ordered that the plaint be registered as a suit and issued summons in the matter. The domain registrars and related entities were directed to file their written statements within 30 days.

Summons were also issued to the unknown registrant and another party, who have been directed to file their written statements within 30 days of service.

The matter has been listed before the Joint Registrar on May 6, 2026, while the application for injunction will be next heard on August 13, 2026.

For Plaintiffs: Advocates Sourabh Rath, Raghav Bhargava, and Suradhish Vats

For Defendants No. 2 to 4: Advocates Shweta Sahu and Vishal Hablani

For Defendants No. 5 & 6: Sangita Malhotra Talwar SPC with Govil Upadhya, GP, Kapil Dev Yadav and Advocate Nisha