Action has been filed in the Commercial High Court of Colombo by D. Samson & Sons (Private) Limited (DSI) against an entity operating an e-commerce business on Facebook and Instagram under a purported name of “AVI_Clothing”.
The action was filed for the infringement of DSI’s AVI trademark and brand on the basis of unfair competition and passing-off.
On March 27 Commercial High Court Judge Priyantha Fernando, issued an enjoining order against the Defendant, AVI_Clothing, for engaging in the business of selling clothing with a brand name identical or confusingly similar to the AVI trademark and brand.
The plaintiff, DSI, pleaded that the Defendant had copied the mark “AVI” belonging to the plaintiff in a phonetically and visually similar manner with the deliberate intention of passing of its products as those of the plaintiff.
The plaintiff p pleaded that the slight insignificant changes in the impugned mark used by the Defendant are unnoticeable to the average consumers and deliberately adopted with the mala fide intention of the defendant to usurp the goodwill and reputation of the plaintiff’s AVI trademark.
The Commercial High Court having heard the submissions of the Lead Counsel for the plaintiff issued an enjoining order as prayed for by the plaintiff restraining the defendant from continuing to use the name/sign/ mark “AVI” or any other variation thereof and from carrying out the business under the trade name “AVI_Clothing” and any other variation thereof and using any other trade name or trademarkconfusingly similar to Plaintiff’s trade name or trademark.
Notice was issued on the Defendant to appear in Court on April 10, 2023.
Attorneys-at-law Manoj Bandara and Ms. Nayomi Chethana, instructed by Sudath Perera Associates appeared for DSI.