Bombay High Court extends interim protection to Tata-owned Trent Limited against infringement of ZUDIO trademark

The Bombay High Court recently extended the interim relief it had granted to TATA-owned retail company Trent Limited by injuncting unknown infringers from using the company’s registered trademark ZUDIO. [Trent Limited v. zudiofranchise.net & Ors].Justice RI Chagla passed the order on November 2 without hearing any of the defendants, considering the urgency in the matter. He further directed that the order be uploaded on the High Court website only after the directions have been complied with.The Court said that the order will be effective till December 18. However, Trent informed the Court on that day that the directions had not been complied with. Accordingly, the order was extended till today, and was further extended until the next date of listing..Trent claimed that the defendants, including zudiofranchise.net and others, used the company's mark and artwork for their services and as part of their domain name.It claimed that certain defendants have used the name and intellectual property rights to defraud unsuspecting customers and wilfully and fraudulently represent to the public that they are employees/associates of the company..On perusing the documents submitted, Justice Chagla was convinced that Trent had made a strong prima facie case for granting ex-parte ad-interim relief."From the documents filed, I am convinced that the Plaintiff’s trade mark/artistic work of ZUDIO is distinctive and has garnered enormous goodwill and reputation," the order stated.The Court directed the domain registrar Tucows Domain Inc to file a disclosure affidavit containing details of the persons and entities who registered the domain name which had allegedly infringed the ZUDIO mark.The domain registrar was also directed to suspend the domain name and bring down the website till the suit was finally decided..After these disclosures were made, the court receiver and additional special receiver were directed to take appropriate steps to ensure that the temporary order of injunction is complied with by the various domains..Trent Limited was represented by Advocates Amey Nargolkar, Smriti Yadav and Parveen Anand, briefed by Khaitan & Co..[Read order]