Chaini Parwani –
Published On: November 03, 2021 at 17:11 IST
The Delhi High Court dismissed the lawsuit by Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group and denied the relief to seek a permanent injunction restraining HakunaMatata (Tata) Founders and others from using the Trademark ‘Tata’ as part of the name under which the Cryptocurrency was made available or as part of their corporate or Domain Name.
It was highlighted that the Domain names were Tatabonus.com and Hakunamatata.
Further finance that sanctioned the purchase and sale of Cryptocurrency bearing the Trademarks ‘Tata coin’ or ‘$Tata’, was set up in June and May respectively.
It came to light that the reason Tata Sons could not prosper is that it could not demonstrate to the settlement of the Court that the foreign parties (the defendants) intentionally target India as a customer base.
The Defendants in Lawsuit were companies based in the US and the UK with no Indian resemblance.
Further, it was stated that the Defendants were located outside the Sovereign Borders of India and statutorily outside the reach of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
Furthermore, the Court stated, “In this backdrop, the intention to target India as a customer base was of paramount importance for Tata Sons to make its case.”
Justice C Hari Shankar authored that solely because the Defendants’ Cryptocurrency can be purchased by customers located in India and that, as a result, the Plaintiff’s brand value may be affected, cannot justify the Court interfering with the Defendants’ activities, or with its brand or mark.
“If at all the target customers, they target customers across the world,” the Judge observed.
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