A Delhi High Court ruling is roiling India's startup ecosystem, and two heavyweight founders are speaking out.
On May 22, Justice Mini Pushkarna delivered a 163-page judgment against Google, finding the search giant liable for trademark infringement through its AdWords platform. Hindware, a bathroom fittings maker, had watched rivals bid on its own brand name as a search keyword. Google was ordered to pay ₹3 million in damages. The ruling has now prompted founders to air years of accumulated grievance.
Nithin Kamath, who founded fintech unicorn Zerodha, took to X to describe the problem his company has faced for over a decade. "Whenever someone searches for Zerodha, the traffic should rightfully come to Zerodha," he wrote. "But what often happens is that the first couple of results on Google Search are ads, leading the customer to a competitor's website."
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu publicly backed the ruling. Entrepreneurs argue that Google's system forces established brands to spend substantially to protect their own names from competitors.
The judgment rejected Google's claim that it was merely a "passive intermediary." Justice Pushkarna wrote: "Google, by selling the trademark of the plaintiff as a keyword without any authorization for commercial gains is infringing the plaintiff's right to exclusive use of its trademark."
Google responded with a statement saying its global ad policies do not allow competitors to use trademarked terms in ad text, and that it "respects local laws and works through legal processes when court orders are overbroad."
With India housing more internet users than anywhere except China, this ruling could reshape Google's search and ad operations in one of its most lucrative markets. The startup world is watching.
