Fashion Law Journal
In the recent Interim Judgment of the Delhi High Court, the popular USA Brand, New Balance, had approached the court against first copies of their products being sold at exorbitant discounts by a website, to curtail which, an ad interim injunction has been granted.
The website called www.myshoeshop.in has been found to be selling “first copies”, as openly proclaimed in the website, of footwear of the well-known brand. It is also brought to the Court’s attention that products of many other well-known brands like Adidas, Nike, and Louis Vuitton etc. are also being sold with heavy discount rates on this website.
So “first copy” items, as we know, are goods that are made, copied directly from an existing product of a popular brand, that do not guarantee the same quality as the original product, as they are designed only to look similar. They are counterfeits, and are sold at a very cheap rate in comparison to the original products. They call their goods first copies only as a marketing strategy in order to attract customers to buy theirs against other cheap knock-offs in the market.
Now this unfair practice undoubtedly jeopardizes the business of the well-known brands, which in this case, was New Balance along with a few others.
The Court hence recognized that the Plaintiff (New Balance) has made out a prima facie case for the grant of injunction against the Defendant 1(my shoe shop), as there is a clear existence of counterfeit practices and hence, violation of Trademark rights of these popular brands.
It was further recognized that an irreparable loss would be caused to the brands if this website selling counterfeits is not prevented from running. Balance of convenience was also said to be clearly favoring the Plaintiff in this juncture.
Accordingly, the Defendant 1’s website was directed to be blocked until further notice, and Secondly, as it was also noted that they were offering these goods through phone numbers, details of subscribers along with KYC Documents of the same has been requested to be provided to the Court. And thirdly, their Instagram page, @myshoeshop_ was also directed to be blocked until further notice. The Court has instructed the Defendants to file their written statements in 30 days, and the next hearing is said to be on November 9.
Name of the case: New Balance Athletics Inc. v. Ashok Kumar Trading as www.myshoeshop.in & Ors
Citations: CS (COMM) 531/2022
Author: Sai Smriti Girish
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