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Delhi High Court has restrained the Asus Technology Pvt Ltd. from selling and advertising mobile phones and accessories under ZEN, ZENFONE or any other identical trademarks in India.
Hearing the plea by Telecare Network seeking to restrain Asus from selling, offering and advertising for the sale of mobile phones, accessories or any other related products or any other products under the trademark of ZEN, ZENFONE or identical trademarks. Justice Manmohan said that “The triple identity test is satisfied as the defendants (Aus) have made the use of a deceptively similar/identical trademark of ZENFONE in relation to identical goods (e.g., mobile phones) having identical trade channels.”
The order also stated that “the Consequently the defendants (Asus) having adopted a deceptively similar mark wherein the dominant part of the defendant’s mark ZENFONE is the plaintiff’s (Telecare) mark ZEN, for the same product i.e., mobile phones, shows prima facie that there is a likelihood of confusion and damage to the plaintiff’s goodwill”
Telecare Network in its plea said that “the marks ZEN and ZENFONE come under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and has been continuously and extensively used by the company in their feature phones, smartphones, tablets, and accessories since 2008, and argued that Asus mark was likely to cause confusion in the minds of the public that two were somehow associated and Asus acted with mala fide intent to ride upon its goodwill and reputation.”
Where, Asus in its counter submission said that “there was no scope of confusion or deception in the minds of the consumers as the mark ZENFONE was coupled with its well-known registered house mark ASUS, thereby identifying the source and origin of their products.