ASWAL ASSOCIATES- Intellectual Property Law firm India

Executive Summary On 2nd July 2026, the Delhi High Court awarded Bata India Ltd. actual litigation costs of Rs. 24,63,400 against Crocs Inc. USA, bringing the twelve-year design infringement suit to a close after the underlying design registration was cancelled by the Deputy Controller of Patents & Designs (while Crocs' composite suits on the shape trademark and passing off remain pending) . The order is a useful case study for foreign rights-holders and their Indian counsel on three fronts: (i)                       the consequences of pursuing a design suit where validity is later successfully challenged; (ii)                     how Indian commercial courts now compute and award actual, realistic costs rather than nominal or symbolic amounts; and (iii)    ...

  A Critical Analysis of Whirlpool of India Ltd. v. Videocon Industries Ltd. ( S. J. Kathawalla, J., Bombay High Court, Notice of Motion No. 2269 of 2012 in Suit No. 2012 of 2012, decided May 27, 2014) Core question: Can an infringement suit under Section 22 lie against a person who is himself a registered proprietor of a design? And, on the facts, was there infringement and passing off? Core statutory provisions: Sections 2(c), 6, 11, 19 and 22, Designs Act, 2000 I. Introduction The Designs Act, 2000 grants a registered proprietor a time-bound monopoly over the visual features of an article, but it does not say, in so many words, whether that monopoly can be enforced against another person who has himself managed to register a similar or identical design. Whirlpool of India Ltd. v. Videocon Industries Ltd. is the leading Bombay High Court authority answering this question, and it did so by adopting — and thereby entrenching — the position first taken by the Delhi High ...