IndiaRetailBiz

In an interesting trademark related judgment, that in future could have far reaching consequences, the Honourable Madras High Court has agreed with the prayer of French retailer Carrefour that it is the legal owner of the registered trademark ‘CARREFOUR’ and that the public could be deceived into believing that products offered by others with similar name have a connection with the former.

Founded in 1960, the €94 billion, Carrefour, is the world’s second biggest and Europe’s biggest retailer. Apart operating in France, the retail chain operates a total of about 7,000 outlets across the world. Carrefour in French incidentally means “crossroad.”

Carrefour had filed the application for restraining the use of its name in the Madras High Court against the Chennai-based Carrefour House of Interiors and its owners. The Honourable court ruled that the applicant would suffer irreparable injury if injunction was refused.

The respondents pleaded that the applicant was not entitled to prevent them from using the brand name, which they were using from the year 2000, and their use of the trademark was an ‘honest adoption’ of the name. They had applied for the registration of the name in respect of furniture items in 2001 and that no one had opposed their application for registration.

However, Carrefour rebutted the argument saying that use of Carrefour name could not be considered as ‘honest adoption’ as it had secured registration of ‘CARREFOUR’ trade mark way back in 1995.