Indian counterfeiters ordered to compensate Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss secured a win in India in late December, after a Delhi court ordered two defendants to pay the jeans manufacturer damages for counterfeiting.

Additional District Judge Anil Antil ordered the defendants, who were running their businesses in Delhi and Bihar, to pay Levi Strauss punitive and compensatory damages of Rs 50,000 ($787) each.

Levi Strauss owns numerous trademarks across the globe, including the mark ‘Levi’s’ and its two horse logo.

“Plaintiff has spent a huge amount of money in advertising and promoting its products under the said trademarks/labels/works. The plaintiff has acquired a unique distinction and an enviable reputation and goodwill in India,” said Antil.

The defendants manufacture and sell clothing and, according to the court, have counterfeited Levi Strauss’s marks.

Antil added that the marks being used by the defendants are deceptively similar to Levi Strauss’s marks “in each and every respect” including phonetically, visually and structurally.

The court went on to say that the defendants have also copied the artistic features in the plaintiff’s trademark, thereby infringing Levi Strauss’s copyright in the mark.

It’s been a busy few weeks for trademark decisions in India.

In late December, WIPR reported that French designer Christian Louboutin secured damages for the infringement of its red sole trademark at the Delhi High Court.

A few days before, WIPR outlined the decision of the Supreme Court of India which confirmed that trademark rights are territorial, not global, in rejecting a trademark case brought by Toyota.

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