Delhi Court grants relief to Adidas in trademark suit

A Delhi court recently granted relief to Adidas in a trademark suit against a Connaught Place based shop owner who sold goods which bore fake Adidas logos [Adidas AG v Mr. Yogesh Gupta]..District Judge Vidya Prakash has issued a permanent injunction to restrain the Connaught Place shop owner (defendant) from using Adidas trademarks and passing off products as that of Adidas.The court also allowed Adidas to recover ₹1 lakh in damages from the defendant, apart from asking him (shop owner) to pay the costs of the suit. “In the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court is of the view that the plaintiff (Adidas) has succeeded in proving that the defendant was stocking, distributing and selling goods bearing falsified trademarks and logos of the plaintiff company and therefore, trademarks and copyright of plaintiff company are required to be protected," the Court said in its July 6 judgment..By way of background, in 2019 Adidas came to know that the defendant was running a wholesale business by stocking, distributing and selling goods with trademarks that were identical or deceptively similar to the trademarks of Adidas. The infringing products sold by the defendant bore the name "adidas", and had the “3-Strips” mark, "performance logo", “Trefoil", etc., causing confusion and deception amongst the purchasing public, Adidas found.It, therefore, filed a trademark suit before the Delhi court through its authorised representative, Narendra Singh.Adidas argued that these products were not genuine and that they were of inferior quality. Adidas added that the shop owner was deceiving the public, diluting the goodwill and reputation of Adidas and causing it huge losses.Adidas had sought a permanent injunction against the defendant and the delivery of all goods bearing its trademark so that such infringing products may be destroyed. Further, the German company sought an account of profits made by selling such infringing products, apart from calling for punitive damages to be imposed on the shop owner. .The shop owner did not appear before the court, despite being served summons. Therefore, the court proceeded to decide the case ex parte (without hearing the defendant) and eventually ruled in favour of Adidas based on a balance of probabilities. .Advocates Priya Nagpal and Nandani Agarwal represented Adidas. .[Read Judgment]