Blog
UNDER ARMOUR, INC VS. ADITYA BIRLA FASHION & RETAIL LTD
The plaintiff UNDER ARMOUR, Inc (UA India) is a company incorporated in the US, with its registered office at Maryland, U.S.A. The plaintiff uses it‘s UNDER ARMOUR/UA/UNDR ARMR mark essentially on sports apparel. The plaintiff was aggrieved by the fact that the defendant was, on identical goods, using the marks STREET ARMOR‖, SA‖ and STRT ARMR. Even while using ―STREET ARMOR‖ as a device, the plaintiff alleges that the defendant uses a similar font and lettering for ―ARMOR‖ while using a disproportionately small font and lettering for STREET.
The Hon’ble Justice C. Hari Shankar of Delhi High Court held that there has been an infringement by the Defendants and an injunction was granted in favour of the Plaintiffs.
The important points discussed by the Court to reach the above decision are:
1. Is ARMOUR the dominant part of the plaintiff‘s marks?
2. Is the ‘ARMOUR‘part of the plaintiff‘s marks descriptive?
3. The ‘common to trade‘ defense
4. Suppression of Fact – Relevance of FERs and Examination Report in infringement/passing off proceedings
