The Federal Court of Canada permanently enjoined a company ‘Amul Canada’ from infringing the trademark and copyright of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (popularly known as Amul) and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited.
The decision held by the Canadian Court also directed the defendant (Amul Canada) to award damages aggregating CAD 32,733 to plaintiffs- Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited.
“The Defendants have directed public attention to their business in such a way as to cause or be likely to cause confusion in Canada, at the time they commenced so to direct public attention to them, between their business and the goods and business of the Plaintiffs, contrary to section 7(b) of the Trademarks Act,” the Court statement reads.
Reacting to the development, Dr. Rupinder Singh Sodhi, Managing Director- Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Ltd., (Amul), tweeted, “Amul has well-known Brand status all over the world so no can use it in any product category. A win of 3.6 million farmers.”
India’s dairy giant Amul has filed a case against the company, ‘Amul Canada- and four others Mohit Rana, Akash Ghosh, Chandu Das, and Patel, alleging breaches of trademark and copyright through the Defendants’ LinkedIn website, advertising their product, using their brand image and name, as well as corporate information.
Whereas, Amul asserted that they had never licensed nor accorded permission to either Amul Canada or any of the four individuals to use their trademarks and copyrights in any manner.
Amul stated that they had made numerous attempts to seek a response from the Defendants (Amul Canada and four others) but never received it. Later, the legal counsels of Amul initiated an ex-parte motion for default judgment.
The court observed that defendants have infringed the copyright of the plaintiffs contrary to section 27 of the Copyright Act and trademark rights of the plaintiffs, contrary to sections 19 and 20(1)(a) of the Trademarks Act.
The Federal Court also noted that Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited is the registered owner of Canadian Trademark Registration No. TMA877339, registered on May 7, 2014, for the trademark AMUL, which has been used in Canada since June 30, 2020, in association with the goods “milk products”.
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