A commercial court in Belagavi recently refused to grant an injunction in favour of a Karnataka-based company in its trademark dispute against American artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic over the mark “ANTHROPIC" [Anthropic Softwares v. Anthropic PBC].
The suit was filed by Belagavi-based Anthropic Softwares Private Limited alleging passing off and trademark violation. The Indian company relied on a newspaper report stating that the American entity was opening its first office in India and on a website announcement stating that it would commence operations in Bengaluru in early 2026.
The Indian company sought a temporary injunction restraining the US company from directly or indirectly passing itself off as being associated with it by using the mark “Anthropic” or any other identical or deceptively similar mark.
Principal District and Sessions Judge Manjunath Nayak first allowed an application under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, permitting the suit to be filed without mandatory pre-institution mediation since urgent interim relief had been sought.
However, the Court declined to grant an ex parte injunction. After examining the plaint, affidavit and documents, the Court observed that apart from the two publications, there was no material to show that the defendant had commenced operations in India using the plaintiff’s registered mark. The Court also noted that the defendant’s address in the cause title was shown as San Francisco, indicating that no Indian establishment had yet been set up.
Holding that an ex parte temporary injunction can be granted only when there is an imminent threat of infringement, the Court found that such a threat had not been demonstrated.
"In order to grant an exparte order of temporary injunction, by dispensing with notice to the defendant, there should be imminent threat of infringement or violation. In this case, at this stage I have not found any such imminent threat in order to grant an exparte order of temporary injunction, without issuing notice to the defendant and without hearing the defendant," Court held.
The Court consequently issued notice on the interim application and summons to the US company.
The case is now expected to be heard on February 16.
The civil suit comes amid parallel proceedings before the Trade Marks Registry. Anthropic Softwares Private Limited has filed an objection seeking rectification/cancellation for the mark “ANTHROPIC” in Classes 42 and 9, registered in the name of Anthropic PBC, San Francisco.
Before the Registry, the Indian company further alleged bad faith adoption, claiming that registration of the US company’s mark would cause confusion among consumers in the IT services sector and amount to infringement and passing off. It has also invoked provisions relating to deceptive similarity and likelihood of confusion.
[Read Order]