Delhi High Court Stays Injunction Against Samman Capital In Trademark Case By Svamaan Financial Services

The Delhi High Court has stayed the operation of a single bench's order that temporarily restrained Sammaan Capital Limited from using 'SAMMAAN' mark in a trademark infringement plea moved by Svamaan Financial Services Private Limited, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) providing microfinance loans. A division bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Ajay Digpaul observed “In view of the fact that the appellants are, in all their promotional material, adding the caption “Formerly known as Indiabulls HOME LOANS”, does the likelihood of confusion not get mitigated?…In this context, the appellant's offer to continue to include the said caption in all their advertisements and promotional materials – which, according to them, also demonstrates their bona fides and supports their contention that they are not seeking to piggyback on the respondent's reputation – also deserves serious consideration. At the end of the day, it has to be remembered that the objective of injuncting infringement is protection of intellectual property rights, not stifling of healthy competition.”The single bench in his order noted that the impugned 'SAMMAAN' mark were identically similar to Svamaan Financial Services (plaintiff) 'SVAMAAN' trademark and thus a prima facie case of trademark infringement was made out. In doing so the court noted that both the marks/words denoted respect and were hence similar to each other.It had said that due to structural, phonetic and conceptual closeness between the marks, the impugned mark is deceptively similar to the plaintiff's mark. The single bench had opined that the use of the impugned mark by the defendants was not bona fide. Against this Sammaan Capital approached the division bench. The division bench however was of the view that "immediate enforcement" of the impugned order was likely to cause prejudice to Sammaan Capital.The Court noted that Sammaan Capital has been using 'SAMMAAN' mark as part of their domain name since October 2023 and commercially as part of their marks since May 2024, which was in Svamaan Financial's knowledge. It stated that immediate enforcement of single judge's order would mean that Sammaan Capital would have to change the word mark, device marks and even corporate name, in which it has have obtained RBI clearance, ROC registration, GST registration among other things.The Court noted that issues whether the marks are phonetically similar, whether the impugned mark would be likely to cause confusion and the test of the consumer of average intelligence requires a deeper analysis and consideration by it. The division bench thus continued the status quo granted by it on February 13 till the disposal of the appeal before it."Till then, therefore, the operation of the impugned judgement of the learned Single Judge shall stand stayed," the court directed. With respect to protection from 'likelihood of confusion' the bench directed Sammaan Capital to include the caption 'Formerly known as Indiabulls' in all their advertisements and promotional campaigns. It also directed it to include the caption 'We have no connection with Svamaan Financial Services Pvt Ltd' so that it is clearly visible to the consumer. “This, in our view, would sufficiently assuage the respondent's apprehension that, by use of the SAMMAAN marks, the appellants may ride on the respondent's reputation, by confusing consumers” it remarked.The Court listed the appeals for hearing and disposal on April 21. Title: SAMMAAN FINSERV LIMITED v. SVAMAAN FINANCIAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED & ORS.Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 201Click Here To Read/Download Order

Delhi High Court Stays Injunction Against Samman Capital In Trademark Case By Svamaan Financial Services

Sanjana Dadmi

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