Bengaluru Civil Court Temporarily Restrains Samsung India From Using Concierge Trademark

The defendants argued that as per clause 4(1) of the terms of agreement entered between the plaintiff company and Samsung, the electronics company has every right to use the word that has been coined during the Plaintiff's service contract.

The court however observed that the documents produced by the plaintiff sufficiently disclose that Sikand has been using the word 'CONCIERGE' since 1998 for her services and it is only after Samsung came to know about such services, did it hire the plaintiff company. The material also disclosed that the word 'CONCIERGE' was used by Samsung only subsequent to hiring of services of plaintiff company.

"It is clear that the plaintiff is the firm having a word 'CONCIERGE' inbuilt in its name. Whatever the agreement between the parties, the other party to the agreement cannot claim right over the inbuilt name of the other party."

The defendants had also argued that the word 'CONCIERGE' is a descriptive word and cannot be used as a trademark.

Rejecting this contention, the bench observed,

"It is true that the word 'CONCIERGE' is a dictionary word that means bellboy in a hotel. It is relevant to note that the plaintiff is not providing the service of a bell boy in any hotel. The services provided by the plaintiff are totally different from the generic or word meaning found in the dictionary."

It added,

"When the word has been used for different services other than the dictionary meaning, certainly it will become distinctive. If the word is not distinctive, certainly the plaintiff would not have obtained the trademark registration on a word mark 'CONCIERGE."

Thus finding the plaintiff to be the prior user of the trademark 'CONCIERGE', the Court granted temporary injunction in its favour.

The Plaintiffs were represented by Chintan Chinnappa, Partner, Spectrum Legal and was assisted by associates, Ms. Divya R and Ms. Tamanna Sharma

Case Title : Dipali Sikand and ors v Samsung India Electronic Private Limited and anr

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