The Delhi High Court recently passed an interim order directing Indian e-commerce platform Meesho to take down listings of products that were deceptively similar to products sold by American undergarment and apparel company Jockey.
In the order passed on May 29, Justice Jyoti Singh found that Jockey had made out a prima facie case that its trademark was violated by those selling the copycat products.
“The impugned marks are prima facie deceptively similar to JOCKEY, the registered trademark of the Plaintiff (Jockey) and is being used by the Defendants for identical products. The consumer base and trade channels being common, likelihood of confusion cannot be ruled out," the Court held.
Jockey had approached the Court after learning in January that its products are being sold under deceptively similar names “JOYKE”, “JOYEBEE”, “JOYESS” and “JOJOKE” on Meesho and other websites. Its private investigation also revealed that one infringing company was in the process of obtaining trademark registration for an allegedly infringing mark.
It stated that the infringing company did not pay heed to its letter asking to cease and desist from the use. It also submitted that Meesho refused to take down the listings of the infringing products from its website without a court order directing it to do so.
On the basis of Jockey’s submissions, the Court granted an ex parte interim injunction restraining the companies from manufacturing, marketing or selling its products using names that violate Jockey's trademark.
Further, the Court directed Meesho to block the URLs on its website offering such infringing products for sale within 36 hours of receiving the Court's order.
The Court also directed Meesho to provide the KYC details, registered addresses, mobile numbers, UPI details, transaction records, IP logs of the infringing companies within four weeks from the date of the order.
The next date of hearing of the matter is on September 24.
Advocates Saif Khan, Shobhit Agrawal and Diya Viswanath appeared for Jockey.
[Read order]