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Very recently, Amul has been successful in obtaining an order from the Federal Court, Canada for trademark violation. In this case, around January 2020, Amul learnt that group of fraudsters of Canada has blatantly copied the trade mark "AMUL" and the logo of "Amul – Taste of India", and created a fake Amul profile on LinkedIn platform which amounts to trade mark and copyright infringement.
Amul
immediately moved in the Federal Court of Canada against Amul Canada,
Mohit Rana, Akash Ghosh, Chandu Das, and Patel who created this
deceptive profile on LinkedIn. Despite several attempts of service of
the suit on the defendants, the defendants never responded.
Consequently,
Amul brought an ex parte Motion for Default Judgment. The Court held
that Amul has clearly satisfied all the elements for establishing
"passing off" test being: i) existence of goodwill, ii) deception of
public due to misrepresentation, and iii) actual or potential damages to
Amul.
The Federal Court of Canada held that, the Defendants have
infringed the copyright of the Amul. In view of non-compliance by the
Defendants at all stages, the Federal Court held that the Motion for
default judgment has been rightly initiated by the Amul.
Owing to
the aforesaid order, the said Defendants are permanently restrained
from infringing the trademark and copyright of the Plaintiffs, i.e. AMUL
and Amul-The Taste of India and that the defendants shall transfer to
the Plaintiffs within 30 days of the date of this Judgment, ownership
and all rights, access, administration and control over LinkedIn
pages/accounts, domain names and social media pages. The Defendants
shall provide a listing and contact information for all entities who
contacted the Defendants through the disputed LinkedIn page.
Finally,
Amul has been awarded damages of USD $10,000 for actions contrary to
the Trademarks Act, USD $5,000 for actions contrary to the Copyright Act
and awarded costs of USD $17,733, payable by the Defendants.
Dr
RS Sodhi, Amul's Managing Director added that all this was possible only
because we were alert and provided the supporting documents
substantiating our claims.
With this, we hope such orders would
deter counterfeiters, infringers, globally, before appropriating someone
else's IPR which has been built with a lot of effort and eventually
becomes an identifier for the company or even a nation. India and
Indians, proudly associate themselves with AMUL, one of the most popular
household brands.
It is important to note that GCMMF is
exporting milk products to USA since last 22 years and also started
exporting Amul Kool, Ice Cream and Dairy snacks to Canada since last two
years.We are glad that Canada recognized our very own, The Taste of
India!, Dr Sodhi added.
Counsel for Amul in India for the case is
Ms. Suhrita Majumdar, IP Lawyer, S Majumdar & Co., New Delhi and
Counsel for Amul in Canada Mr. Michael Adams, IP Lawyer, Riches McKenzie
& Herbert LLP.
AMUL – A mega co-operative
owned by 3.6 million dairy farmers of Gujarat, India is known for its
success story as a developmental tool in the hands of the farmer. Amul
is globally 8th largest milk processor handling 10.3 MMT milk annually
with a turnover of over INR 40000 crores (9 billion CAD$). In fact, the
trade mark AMUL is so popular, that today it has become synonym for
dairy.
AMUL's claim to monarchy in the minds of consumers was
further strengthened, when the Intellectual Property Appellate Board
accorded it the status of a well-known trade mark in Canada recently.
Source:agritimes.co.in
Editor:IPRdaily-Vapor