The Delhi High Court, in Inter Ikea Systems BV vs I Key Home Studio LLP & Anr. [CS (COMM) 1143/2024], granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favour of IKEA, a multinational furnishing giant based in Sweden, restraining Ikey, an Indian furnishing company, from dealing in goods and providing services under the mark ‘IKEY’, ‘IKEY Home Studio’, or any branding that could potentially embroil consumers by imitating and commercially benefitting from IKEA’s established trade mark.
Ikey had been accused of commercialising its products as associated with IKEA and falsely benefitting from the multinational giant’s established branding and goodwill. As per the claims, the impugned marks ‘IKEY’ and ‘IKEY Home Studio’ confused IKEA’s buyers into buying products from Ikey.
An investigation by IKEA also revealed that Ikey was operating an offline store and website ‘ikeyllp.com’ and marketing its products as part of a collection of items from "renowned brands". IKEA contended that consumers might mistakenly believe that Ikey’s offerings were associated with IKEA, which was a false pretence and an attempt to affect its customer base.
Trade mark infringement clash hits Court
The legal clash started when IKEA discovered that Ikey had previously filed five trade mark applications.
Upon issuing a cease-and-desist notice, IKEA was met with resistance as Ikey denied any similarity between the two brands. The ball came further into IKEA's side of the court when Ikey failed to appear before the Court and neglected the summons.
The Delhi High Court, in its decision dated 18 December 2024, held that IKEA presented sufficient evidences backing their claims of the interim infringement of their trade mark ‘IKEA’. The Court found that the balance of convenience was in favour of IKEA and that Ikey had voluntarily imitated the subject trade mark for commercial benefits.
Next hearing to be held in May 2025
The Court barred Ikey Home Studio and anyone associated with it, until the date of the next hearing scheduled for 9 May 2025, from using any branding that could potentially embroil consumers by imitating and commercially benefitting from IKEA’s registered trade mark ‘IKEA’. In addition to that, the Court directed Ikey to suspend the domain name ‘ikeyllp.com’ during the pendency of the infringement suit and requested disclosure of details regarding the registrant of the website.
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