{"id":38176,"date":"2021-11-25T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T06:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/?p=38176"},"modified":"2024-05-24T14:37:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T09:07:53","slug":"amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Amul India wins its trademark Infringement case against Amul Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">At present, there has been an increase in trademark infringement cases. Trademark infringement occurs in the Case of prohibited use of a <a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/trademark-registration\"><strong>trademark<\/strong><\/a>\/service mark\/ concerning products in a way likely to be deceitful or misleading about the origin of the products or services. A plaintiff must prove in law that it possesses a valid mark, that it has priority. The defendant trademark is likely to mislead the consumers about the origin of the products or services offered under the parties\u2019 Trademark. This write-up will pen down how Amul India won its first trademark infringement case in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title ez-toc-toggle\" style=\"cursor:pointer\">Page Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/#Facts_related_to_the_Case\" >Facts related to the Case<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/#What_is_an_Ex-parte_Order\" >What is an Ex-parte Order?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/#What_was_the_Courts_assumption_related_to_this_Case\" >What was the Court\u2019s assumption related\nto this Case?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/#What_Judgement_was_issued_by_the_Court\" >What Judgement was issued by the Court?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amul-india-wins-its-trademark-infringement-case-against-amul-canada\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Facts_related_to_the_Case\"><\/span>Facts related to the Case<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this Case, Plaintiff ( <strong>Kaira District Co-Operative Milk Producers\u2019 Union Limited&nbsp;<\/strong>and<strong>&nbsp;Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd )<\/strong>&nbsp;filed a claim asserting Infringement of Trademark and copyright by the Defendants (<strong>Amul Canada and its employee). Here,<\/strong>&nbsp;Amul <em><strong>Canada<\/strong><\/em><sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Canada\"><em><strong>[1]<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/sup> had used the Plaintiffs\u2019 brand name, logo, and information to advertise their products on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Plaintiff (Amul India) is a famed Indian brand and is common\nin every Indian household. The plaintiff deals in the collection,\nmanufacturing, and distribution of milk and milk products. Plaintiff sells\nthese products under the brand name Amul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAmul\u201d is operated and managed by a cooperative body named&nbsp;<strong>The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing\nFederation Ltd<\/strong>&nbsp;and is a well-known trademark of the\nPlaintiffs. Also, the Plaintiffs have a copyright over the designs associated\nwith the Trademark. Gradually, the Plaintiffs claimed to have made sales in\nCanada to enhance their brand value and become well-known in Canada. As a\nresult, the Plaintiffs have built a reputation and earned goodwill on their\nbrand globally over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrarily, the Defendants had a LinkedIn account with \u2018Amul Canada\u2019 under which they sell, advertise, and market goods. They said \u2018goods\u2019 sold by Amul Canada were identical to that of the interests of Plaintiff, along with a similar trade name and logo. The Plaintiffs strived to compel the Defendants through LinkedIn to stop&nbsp;<strong>advertising, marketing, offering for sale, selling, and delivering goods<\/strong>&nbsp;identical to the Plaintiffs\u2019 interests in Canada under the trademarks and trade names&nbsp;<strong>\u2018Amul\u2019<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>\u2018Amul Canada Limited.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from using the Plaintiffs\u2019 exact marks and designs, the\nDefendants claimed to be the Plaintiffs and performed the misleading activity\nby copying information from the Amul web pages.Plaintiff (Amul India) alleged\nthat they never granted any license to the Defendants the permission to utilize\nthe Plaintiffs\u2019 trademarks in any manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite several attempts, the Plaintiffs never received a\nresponse from the Defendants. In the light of the situation mentioned earlier,\nthe plaintiffs filed a motion for an&nbsp;<strong>ex-parte order.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_an_Ex-parte_Order\"><\/span>What is an Ex-parte Order?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An Ex-parte Order is an order which is passed in the\nnon-appearance of the opposition party. The decision is taken in the presence\nof both parties by considering the principle of natural justice, any case must\nbe, and the concerned parties should be given a right to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_was_the_Courts_assumption_related_to_this_Case\"><\/span>What was the Court\u2019s assumption related\nto this Case?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Remarking the Defendants\u2019 misleading behavior and the Plaintiffs\u2019\ndepletion of all sensible efforts to have the Defendants cease and abstain\ntheir behavior before and during the starting of these proceedings. The Court\nhad the perspective that Plaintiffs had control to invite the movement for\nDefault Judgment&nbsp;<strong>ex\nparte Order<\/strong>&nbsp;to stop the misuse of their Trademark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court further disclosed that there were possible damages\nthat could have been related. The Defendants involved in relentless fraudulent\nbehavior had aimed to lead to Confusion in Canada between the Plaintiff\u2019s goods\nand business and those of the Defendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Plaintiff Party (<strong>Kaira\nDistrict Co-Operative Milk Producers\u2019 Union Limited&nbsp;<\/strong>and<strong>&nbsp;Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing\nFederation Ltd)<\/strong>&nbsp;have met all of the criteria for\nestablishing the \u201cpassing off\u201d test, which comprises of \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Existence of goodwill, Confusion in the mind of public due to misrepresentation, and,<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Actual or potential damages to Plaintiffs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, the Court stated that Plaintiff\u2019s Brand continued\nto exist for well over 50 years and is promoted worldwide through digital and\nother channels. This, as a result, has obtained uniqueness over time and\nreflects that Plaintiffs\u2019 products have a public image in a particular&nbsp;<strong>segment (i.e., Quantity of milk and\ncheese distribution)of distributing milk and cheese products.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, the act of incorrectly advertising their desire to\nraise butter sales in Canada by Defendant was held unpermitted use of the\nPlaintiffs\u2019 Trademark adequate to violate the Trademark right contrary to&nbsp;<strong>Sections 19 and 20(1)(a) of TMA by the\nCourt.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Judgement_was_issued_by_the_Court\"><\/span>What Judgement was issued by the Court?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>In the Light of the Above, the Court came to the following findings-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>To continually prohibit violating the Plaintiffs\u2019 Trademark and copyright with the name of \u2018<strong>Amul\u2019 and \u2018Amul-The Taste of India\u2019<\/strong>&nbsp;and bring to public attention the product and business of the Defendant in that is creating Confusion in Canada.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All LinkedIn accounts created and used&nbsp;<strong>(including any other LinkedIn accounts, domain names, and social media sites owned or handled by the Defendants<\/strong>) are displayed. Further, the Court ordered that Plaintiffs\u2019 trademarks\/<a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/copyright-registration\"><strong>copyright<\/strong><\/a> shall be transferred to Plaintiffs within&nbsp;<strong>thirty<\/strong>&nbsp;days by Defendant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disclosure of all entities that reached the Defendants\u2019 business via LinkedIn pages and their contact information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Plaintiffs were rewarded&nbsp;<em><strong>$10,000 as against the violations of TMA, $5,000 as against the violation of Copyright Act, and the lump sum costs of $17,733.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The judgment made by the Bench is a remarkable development in the protection and Infringement of IPRs of Indian companies dealing abroad. In the given Case, a substantial ratio has been laid down upholding the IPR of the Plaintiffs under&nbsp;<strong><em>Section 7(b), 19 &amp; 20 of the Trademarks Act&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><em>and&nbsp;<\/em><strong><em>Section 27 of the Copyrights Act.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conclusively, the Bench held that the Defendants were engaged in\nambiguous activity since the beginning of proceedings. Thus, it was held that\nthe Plaintiffs have every right to bring the motion for default judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Defendants were lifelong barred from infringing on the Plaintiffs\u2019 trademarks and copyright and from conducting such business which will cause or be likely to cause Confusion between their goods and the Plaintiffs\u2019 goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"text-left\"><b>Read our article<\/b>:<mark style=\"background: #fffd03 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/penalties-remedies-for-trademark-infringement-in-india\/\">Everything you need to know about Penalties &#038; Remedies for Trademark Infringement in India <\/a><\/mark><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At present, there has been an increase in trademark infringement cases. Trademark infringement occurs in the Case of prohibited use of a trademark\/service mark\/ concerning products in a way likely to be deceitful or misleading about the origin of the products or services. A plaintiff must prove in law that it possesses a valid mark, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2034],"acf":{"service_id":"18"},"authorName":"Pankaj Tyagi","authorImageUrl":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/MicrosoftTeams-image-42.jpg","authorDescription":"Pankaj has a diverse experience of writing research papers, blog, and articles during his college time. Earlier, he was working as a tax consultant in a financial firm, but his interest in writing drives him to pursue a career in the writing field.","postViews":5955,"readingTime":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38176"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64409,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38176\/revisions\/64409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}