The recovery and restoration of ownership of a group on Facebook cannot be termed as a dispute relating to trademark and intellectual property, the Bombay High Court said while holding that a civil court has the jurisdiction to hear a suit seeking such declaration.

A single bench of Justice Nitin Sambre passed the order on March 24, a copy of which was made available on Monday, in an application filed by 'The Himalayan Club' against an August 2022 order passed by a civil court here refusing to hear its suit seeking declaration of ownership of a Facebook group and that only it has the exclusive rights to control and manage it.