NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday temporarily barred Leayan Global, the leather and footwear division of RSPL Group, from using the name “Power Flex“, in a trademark infringement case initiated against it by Bata India, which sells some products under the “Power” brand.
Upholding the order passed by its single-judge bench in 2019, Justice C Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla of a division bench said there is a deceptive similarity between Kanpur-based Leayan Global‘s “Power Flex” mark and Bata India’s “Power” mark, and both marks were being used for goods which are similar, thus there is a likelihood of confusion.
The bench said Bata may be using the mark “Power” for canvas footwear, but there is possibility of it expanding the range of footwear manufactured and sold by it under the “Power” brand to include leather footwear or any other kind of footwear.
“There is every likelihood of such an average consumer, who is aware of the ‘Power’ brand of Bata used for canvas footwear, on coming across the ‘Power Flex’ brand for leather footwear, presuming that Bata might have expanded its reach to include leather footwear,” the court said. “This likelihood of confusion stands exaggerated by the similarities between the marks ‘Power’ and ‘Power Flex’.”
However, the bench refused to restrain Leayan Global from using the tagline “The Power of Real Leather”, saying it is clear from the tagline that there is no emphasis on the word ‘Power’.
An average consumer would read and recollect the tagline as a whole, as emphasising the leather content of the footwear, the court said, adding that the consumer is unlikely to link Leayan’s product with Bata’s “Power” range of products merely because of the use of the word “Power” in the tagline. In its trademark infringement petition, Bata India had argued that the trademark “Power”, both as a word mark and as a device mark, was registered in favour of the company for sports footwear and leather goods.
