The Delhi High Court has given relief to Hero MotoCorp by stopping Urban Electric Mobility and its partners from using the names ‘DESTINY’, ‘DESTINY+’ and ‘DESTINY PRO’ for their scooters. The Court found that these names were confusingly similar to Hero’s registered trademarks.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has recently passed an important order in favour of Hero MotoCorp Limited. The Court has granted an ex parte ad-interim injunction against Urban Electric Mobility Private Limited and its connected companies.
This order stops them from using the marks ‘DESTINY’, ‘DESTINY+’ and ‘DESTINY PRO’ for their electric scooters.
The case was heard by Justice Tejas Karia, who gave the order on August 13 after a legal suit was filed by Hero MotoCorp.
In the case, Hero MotoCorp alleged that the defendants had done trademark infringement, passing off and unfair competition by copying Hero’s brand names.
Hero MotoCorp explained before the Court that it is the original and registered owner of the marks ‘DESTINY’, ‘DESTINI’ and ‘DESTINI PRIME’ under trademark Classes 12 and 37.
According to the company:
- Defendants 1–4, who are trading under the name Urban ebikes, were making and selling scooters under the names ‘DESTINY’ and ‘DESTINY+’.
- Defendants 5–6, who are trading under the name Galaxy EV, were selling and promoting scooters under ‘DESTINY’ and ‘DESTINY PRO’ in a commercial arrangement with Defendants 1–4.
- These marks were structurally, phonetically and visually almost the same as Hero MotoCorp’s marks. Hero argued that the defendants were trying to misuse Hero’s goodwill and reputation.
- It was also pointed out that Defendants 1–3 were additionally using the ‘HERO’ mark, which could mislead buyers and create consumer confusion.
Hero MotoCorp told the Court that the adoption of such marks was done only with the intention to misrepresent, and to make customers wrongly believe that there was some connection or partnership between the defendants and Hero MotoCorp. The company further argued that this misrepresentation could cause serious damage to Hero’s brand value, goodwill and market share.
After listening to the case, Justice Tejas Karia observed that urgent relief was necessary in this matter.
The Court clearly said:
“Having considered the submissions advanced by the learned Counsel for the Plaintiff, the pleadings and the documents on record, a prima facie case has been made out by the Plaintiff for grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction. Balance of convenience is in favour of the Plaintiff and against the Defendants. Irreparable injury would be caused to the Plaintiff if the Defendants are allowed to continue to use the Impugned Marks,” the Court held.
Based on this, the Court has restrained the defendants, their owners, directors, employees and business partners from selling, offering for sale, manufacturing, advertising, or promoting by any means—whether offline or online including websites and social media platforms—any scooters using the names ‘DESTINY’, ‘DESTINY+’ and ‘DESTINY PRO’ or any other names that are identical or deceptively similar to Hero’s registered marks ‘DESTINY’, ‘DESTINI’ and ‘DESTINI PRIME’.
- Hero MotoCorp was represented in Court by Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Sidharth Chopra, Kanishk Kumar, Deepika Pokharia, Priyansh Kohli and Abhinav Bhalla from the law firm Saikrishna & Associates.
CASE TITLE:
Hero Motorcorp Limited Vs Urban Electric Mobility Private Limited and ors.
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