Hon’ble Delhi High court has passed an interim order restricting Asus from using the Zen branding in its products such as Zenphones and Zen Ultrabooks following the trademark impairment plea charged by Telecare Network. Telecare is an Indian brand which is the parent company of Zen Mobiles founded in 2009.
It’s likely at the Zenfone 6’s India availability will be pushed beyond the next date of hearing, July 10.
Meanwhile, Asus has stated that the company is working on resolving the matter.
“The ASUS legal team is currently working with the Delhi High Court in India to resolve the Zen Mobiles and ZenFone trademark lawsuit. The supply of ASUS smartphones, notebooks, and other products, as well as technical support and after-sales service for all ASUS products remain unchanged for all consumers,”said Asus in a press statement.
Zen Mobile is an indigenous brand that has launched quite a few smartphones and feature phones in the Indian market. Telecare Network claims the Zen and Zenmobile title origin back to 2008 under the Trade Marks Act, 1999.
Asus, on the other hand, came later in 2014 with its ZenFone series, which since then has fared a good repo at least in the budget turf. It recently unveiled its 2019 flagship phone- Zenfone 6 (review) as well with this denomination. The Taiwanese brand has also introduced its ZenBook ultrabook series running Windows 10.
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Now, Telecare Network points the confusion created due to the ‘Zen’ moniker attached to Asus products and alleges the accused brand of its maliciously intent.
As for court, it concludes the decision, saying, “the triple identity test is satisfied as the defendants have made use of a deceptively similar/identical trademark(ZENFONE) in relation to identical goods (mobile phones) having identical trade channels the defendants having adopted a deceptively similar mark wherein the dominant part of the defendant’s mark ZENFONE is the plaintiff’s mark ZEN, for the same product i.e. mobile phones, shows prima facie that there is a likelihood of confusion and damage to the plaintiff’s goodwill. Consequently, the defendants (Asus) having adopted a deceptively similar mark wherein the dominant part of the defendant’s mark ZenFone is the plaintiff’s (Telecare) mark Zen, for the same product i.e. mobile phones, shows prima facie that there is a likelihood of confusion and damage to the plaintiff’s goodwill.”
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Asus has assured that their legal team is currently working with the Delhi High Court in India to resolve the Zen Mobiles and ZenFone trademark lawsuit. And as for the supply, technical support and after-sales service for all ASUS products, they remain unchanged for all consumers.
