Delhi High Court grants interim relief to One Moto Scooters in trademark dispute

The Delhi High Court recently passed an interim order in favour of One Moto Scooters Trading LLC to prevent it’s ex-licensees from violating it’s Intellectual Property (IP) rights in India [One Moto Scooters Trading LLC Vs. Centre Systems Group Internet Content Provider]..Justice Pratibha Singh restrained the respondents from launching or using the 'One Moto' mark."Accordingly, considering the fact that the question of maintainability would require some hearing and that there is an imminent threat of the respondents launching or using the mark ‘ONE MOTO’ in some manner,including by appointment of distributors or commencing manufacturing of automotive products, it is deemed appropriate to restrain the respondents," the Court said.The petitioner in the case had filed an application under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 on account of various disputes that arose with the respondents out of the distributorship agreement that permitted the respondents to make use of the Trade Mark and Copyrights pertaining to “One Moto”, “Electa”, “Commuta”, “Ryda”, “Scoota”, “Deliva” and “Byka” in respect of electric vehicles.The said agreement comprised of an arbitration clause subjecting the parties to the agreement to London Court of International Arbitration in case of any dispute and the seat of the arbitration was to be London with the governing law of England and Wales.The grievance of the petitioner was that the respondents were encroaching upon their trademark and copyrights by assuming ownership over the same and were in the process of launching the electric vehicles under the aforesaid licensed trademarks and copyrights.Since the cause of action partly arose in Delhi and also due to the fact that the respondents were using the website www.one-moto.in, the Court recognized that an imminent and credible threat existed as the respondents could at any point of time launch their products under the Trade Mark “One Moto” and other brand names.The Court, therefore, restrained the respondents from using the mark ‘ONE MOTO’, the device mark, or any other mark which is identical or deceptively similar to the trademarks of the products ‘ONE MOTO’, ‘ELECT’, ‘COMMUTA’, ‘RYDA’, ‘SCOOTA’, ‘DELIVA’ and ‘BYKA’ which were the subject matter of the distributorship agreement, executed between the two parties in May 2021, till the next date of hearing.With respect to the website ‘www.one-moto.in’ was concerned, the same had already been taken down. "It is directed that status quo shall be maintained and the domain name shall remain blocked. Copy of this order shall be communicated to National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) by the ld. Counsel for the Petitioner," the Court ordered.In view of the fact that the distributorship agreement between the parties stood terminated, the Court said that the respondents could not proceed with any contractual arrangements with the sub-distributors in respect of these marks. However, any other independent relationship was not restrained.Further, in order to enable the parties to negotiate any arrangement in respect of sub-distribution arrangements or the sponsorship of the IPL team which was stated to have been made by ‘ONE MOTO’, Senior Advocate Sudhanshu Batra was appointed as the mediator to attempt an amicable resolution of the disputes between the parties. "The same shall be without prejudice to all the claims and counter-claims which the parties may have against each other."The matter will be heard next on September 23, 2022. .Senior advocate Sanjay Ghose along with advocates Urvi Mohan, Kunal Khanna and Kanishka Khurana appeared for the petitioners.Advocates Rohan Rohatgi, Aditi Khullar and Abhinav Garg appeared for the respondents..[Read Order]