India court orders Amazon to pay $39 million in damages
27/2/2025 6:20
An Indian court has
ordered an Amazon unit to pay $39 million in damages
for infringing the "Beverly Hills Polo Club" trademark after
garments with identical branding were sold on Amazon's India
website, a court order showed on Wednesday.
Indian lawyers called the ruling a landmark judgment in
terms of the amount of damages assessed against a U.S. firm in
trademark cases.
The case was initiated in 2020 by Lifestyle Equities, the
owner of "Beverly Hills Polo Club" (BHPC) horse trademark, which
alleged Amazon's India shopping website had listings of apparel
with a similar logo at a fraction of the price.
The infringing brand was owned by Amazon Technologies and
sold on the Amazon India website, the court said.
Amazon has denied wrongdoing. Company spokespersons in U.S.
and India did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the
court order.
"The logo which has been used is hardly distinguishable,"
the Delhi High Court noted in its 85-page order, which also
contained photos of T-shirts comparing the two marks.
Amazon "is well-aware of the exclusive rights of the
Plaintiffs in the BHPC mark and logo as it has been involved in
litigation" in multiple jurisdictions, including the UK, the
Indian court added, issuing a "permanent injunction".
"This is likely the highest damages sum awarded in a
trademark infringement suit in India ... It now remains to be
seen how this Indian judgment is enforced by the U.S. courts,"
said Aditya Gupta, a partner at India's Ira Law.
Amazon faced similar allegations in London by Lifestyle
Equities in 2019. Last year, Amazon lost an appeal against a
ruling that it had infringed UK trademarks by targeting British
consumers on its U.S. website.
In 2021, a Reuters investigation, based on thousands of
internal Amazon documents, found the U.S. company ran a
systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating
search results to boost its own private brands in India.
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