Delhi High Court declares New Balance and NB as well-known trademarks

The Delhi High Court recently declared the marks ‘NEW BALANCE’ and ‘NB’, belonging to US-based sports footwear and apparel manufacturers, New Balance Athletics Inc, as well-known trademarks [New Balance Athletics Inc v. New Balance Immigration Private Limited]..Justice Prathiba M Singh noted that the mark “NEW BALANCE” was a unique combination of two distinctive words: “New” and “Balance”, which have no connection, allusion or description of the products or services offered by the company.The logo is also quite distinctive and has been repeatedly enforced by court orders against its misuse, the judge said.“…this Court has perused the plaint and the documents filed by the Plaintiff [New Balance] in support of its long-standing repute. On the strength of averments in the plaint, and the documents and evidence in the form of Mr. Harshit Gupta’s affidavit, the above marks “NEW BALANCE” and “NB” of the Plaintiff are, accordingly, declared as well-known marks,” the Court said.However, it clarified that there shall be no monopoly on the words “New” and “Balance” if they are separately used in respect of any other good or service..The Court passed the judgment in a suit filed by New Balance Athletics Inc (plaintiff) seeking protection of its marks against misuse by another company named New Balance Immigration Private Limited. The latter company was engaged in the business of providing immigration and visa procurement services and were using the marks ‘NEW BALANCE’ and ‘NB.’The Court had earlier granted an ex parte ad interim injunction order in favour of the plaintiff on October 12, 2022. On June 1, 2023, the suit was decreed and the defendants were ordered to pay costs of ₹4 lakh to the plaintiff..Advocates Dushyant K Mahant, Urfee Roomi, Janaki Arun, Anubhav Chhabra, Anuja Chaudhury, Alvin Antony, Jaskaran Singh, Ayush Dixit, Ritesh Kumar and Radhika Arora appeared for New Balance..[Read Judgment]