Delhi High Court restrains three Chinese companies from using trademark of Taiwanese electronics firm HTC

The Delhi High Court recently granted an interim injunction in favour of Taiwanese electronics company HTC, restraining three Chinese firms from manufacturing or exporting products under its trademark [HTC Corporation v. Mr LV Degao and Ors]..Justice Asha Menon held that these firms were riding on the reputation of HTC with clear intent to take an unfair and dishonest advantage. This, the single-judge said, would ultimately lead to a detrimental effect on the distinctive character of the HTC trademarks.“The unfair and dishonest use of the identical trade mark by the defendants for their products clearly riding on the reputation of the plaintiff with clear intent to take unfair advantage of the reputation, cannot, but lead to, a detrimental effect on the distinctive character of the trade mark of the plaintiff, namely, HTC/htc initially drawn from their corporate name and subsequently, itself becoming the corporate name of the plaintiff company,” the High Court held..The Court was dealing with a suit filed by HTC seeking a permanent injunction against the three Chinese firms – Yongkang Geenew Imp & Exp Co Ltd, Yongkang Xinshiji Hairdressing Tools Factory and Yongkang Xinji Hair Dressing Appliance Factory – for trademark infringement.HTC argued that it was registered in Taiwan in 1997 and is a leading manufacturer of consumer electronic items, such as, smartphones, mobile phones, personal digital assistant devices, and virtual reality head-mounted displays. Though earlier incorporated at High Tech Computer Corporation, it gained popularity as HTC.It stated that it started using the HTC mark for its products in 1998. In 2008, it formally changed its name to “HTC Corporation” reflecting the growing popularity of the “HTC” brand. The HTC trademark got registered in India in May 2006 and has since acquired registration in more than 90 countries/jurisdictions across the world.It was argued that the defendants were manufacturers of electric hair trimmers, hair clippers and hair dryers bearing the infringing trademark HTC in China and exporting/supplying the same to the other defendants in India. These defendants, it was alleged, are also selling their products through the Amazon India website.The Court was told that on February 1, 2019, the first defendant filed an application for the mark ‘HTC’ in Class 8, which is lying under objection in the Trade Marks Registry..Justice Menon noted that while HTC stood for High Tech Computers, the 'lame' explanation given by the defendants was that their HTC stood for High Tech Trimmers and Clippers, but this does not adequately stand for their products because then they would be known as ‘HTTC’. It thus held,“The only inference that can be drawn is that the defendants sought to sail with the plaintiff's “to gain unfair advantage”, and such adoption by the defendants of the plaintiff's Trade Mark is “without due cause"''.The Court noted that the dishonesty in the use of the HTC trademark was reflected from the fact that the defendants had hyperlinked their web pages with that of HTC's on Amazon India.It held that HTC disclosed a prima facie case not only for infringement of its trademark, but also for passing off. It added that irreparable damage will be caused to the plaintiff if an injunction is not passed and the balance of convenience also lay in their favour..Therefore, the Court passed the interim order for injunction till the decision in the rectification/cancellation proceedings is rendered by the Registrar of Trademarks.The defendants have been directed to place on the record the sales figures and the revenues from the sale of their products from the date of the filing of the suit, by April 30, 2022..Advocates Hemant Singh, Mamta Jha, Waseem Shuaib Ahmed, Sambhav Jain, Abhijeet Rastogi and Abhishek Kumar appeared for HTC.The respondents were represented by Advocates J Sai Deepak, G Natraj, Avinash Sharma, R Abhishek Ankur Vyas, SK Sharma, Mohd Bilal, Rahul Kumar and Akanksha Singh..[Read Order]