Dabur India Trademark Infringement Case: Why Trademark Registration Is Important?

INTRODUCTION 

Trademark is a kind of intellectual property that can acknowledge your goods or services from those of your challenger. In India, the Trade Marks enrollment was discovered in 1940, and the enrollment presently administers the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and its guidelines.

Trademark registration is highly important in securing your logo or a component of your brand from third-party misuse. 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in India who lack awareness of intellectual property rights. In this blog, we’re going to review a recent trademark breach case involving Dabur India Limited to understand why it’s important to register a trademark in India to save your corporation from all sorts of malicious activities aimed at mislead your consumer.

Dabur India Trademark Infringement Case

Dabur India recently acquired relief in a trademark breach case. The Delhi High Court decree for blocking of certain websites operating in the companies name. “DABUR” has been a registered trademark of Dabur India Limited since the 90s.

These websites were illegally using the term ‘DABUR’ in their domains with a clear intention of misleading consumers into believing they represented Dabur India.

The FMCG giant had filed a trademark breach suit against these fake websites. They got an temporary injunction from the Delhi High Court. The companies had a lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction and damages for disobeying its property rights. It included the logo name “Dabur '', copyright in its wrapping and labelling.

John Doe Order

Allowing interim relief to the FMCG giant by issuing a John Doe Order for blocking the websites, the Delhi High Court stated that Dabur India would suffer “irreparable loss.”

It was further stated by the high court that the domain names are intentionally misleading in nature and definitely scam the general people, resulting in immeasurable harm to the general public.

A John Doe order is a blanket cease-and-desist order granting against unknown individuals. These are pre-infringement injunctions designed to secure a creator’s intellectual property rights.

Below is the list of blocked websites:

• daburdistributorships.in 

• daburfranchisee.in   

• daburdistributor.com

The dishonest websites were also found to be showcasing the company’s goods in order to get franchisees and distributors to sign up to sell the company’s products. Some of these websites were also charging distributors and franchisees for their benefits.

As it was stated by the respectable High Court, this was not just an effort to violate and pass off, but an entire impersonation of Dabur India Limited.

Trademark Registration is crucial

The high court decided the registrar services to ban these domain names to preserve Dabur India’s rights and secure any malpractice or financial loss to the people, distributors, and franchisees.

The Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Electronics and IT were also notified to issue a decree to internet service providers (ISPs) to take down these websites.

This case is a best example of how trademark registration can save your brand and your consumer from counterfeit activities and malicious third-party impersonators.

Trademarks definitely should be treated as a type of insurance for your brand. Especially if your business is in its initial stages, it should be your top priority to register a trademark in India. It assures brand security in the long run. You only have to get it renewed every 10 years and it will always safeguard your brand, the impact it can create for your brand will absolutely last forever.

Why You Should Considered Online Trademark Registration In India?

Here are a several of the many reasons why you should register a trademark in India:

Legal Safeguarding

Trademarks are intellectual property and you have the absolute right to the trademark that describes your goods or services. The symbol “TM” can be used after enrolling the trademark application and ® after the registration is complete. 

Brand Building

Apart from legal security, trademarks are important for building your brand as well. Your consumers are going to associate your goods or services with the logo of your brand, which should be a registered trademark.

Stand Out From Your Competitors

A brand name enrollment is valid for the full class of goods or services covered and it will make consumers distinguish your goods from the competition clearly. Consumers uniquely recognise products with distinct trademarks and trademarks are important for creating a consumer base for your goods.

Conclusion

Whether you are an producer just starting out or want to expand an current business, our experts at Sonisvision are always available to assist you.

It’s always a wise judgement to let experts take care of legal matters like the trademark registration process. It grants you to focus on your core duty as a producer.