Karnataka High Court Restores Classic Legends' Rights To The 'Yezdi' Marks For Motorcycles

The Karnataka High Court has recently allowed a series of appeals filed by Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd. and its founder, restoring their right to use the 'Yezdi' name and logos for motorcycles. The judgment overturns a 2022 decision that had declared the marks to be the property of Ideal Jawa, the defunct manufacturer of the original Yezdi bikes.

A Division Bench of Justice D K Singh and Justice Venkatesh Naik T held that the single judge had erred in concluding that Ideal Jawa continued to own the Yezdi trademarks, noting that the marks had lapsed many years ago and the company had taken no steps to revive or protect them. The bench highlighted that goodwill cannot survive after the business itself has ceased.

It said, “The goodwill in the trade mark is directly proportional to the strength of the business of an entity and that goodwill cannot exist in vacuum for several years especially after all the assets are sold. The goodwill cannot survive independent of the trade/business and extinguishes when the business attached to it ceases to function”

The dispute traces back to Ideal Jawa's winding up. The company stopped manufacturing Yezdi motorcycles in 1996 and entered liquidation soon after. In 2003, all its assets were sold through a court-supervised auction, but the 'Yezdi' trademark was not included in the valuation or the sale notice. The trademark registrations later expired between 2007 and 2008. The Trade Marks Registry also issued notices to the Official Liquidator regarding the lapse, but no renewal applications were filed.

Classic Legends, represented through co-founder Boman R Irani, the son of Ideal Jawa's founder, argued that the trademark had been abandoned and had fallen into the public domain. Irani had independently applied for fresh registrations beginning in 2013–2014 and later assigned exclusive usage rights to Classic Legends in 2018.

The company told the court it had spent extensively on research, development, marketing and relaunching the Yezdi motorcycle brand. It added that the Official Liquidator resurfaced only in 2015, more than a decade after the assets were sold and long after the trademark had expired, and therefore could not retrospectively claim ownership or seek cancellation of valid registrations.

The bench accepted these submissions, noting the Liquidator had never treated the 'Yezdi' mark as a corporate asset, stating that “The OL did not take any steps to protect and revive the 'YEZDI' trade mark for a period of more than 15 years after the date of the winding up order passed by the Company Court. The books of account and all the records of the company were with the OL.”

With the appeals now allowed, Classic Legends is free to continue using the Yezdi name and logos for its motorcycles.

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