Mar 01, 2018

Trade variations of footwear / sandals should not be given exclusive monopoly: Delhi High Court denies interim protection for Crocs registered designs

In the matter of Crocs Inc. USA (‘Crocs’) v. Liberty Shoes Limited & Ors. and other footwear manufacturers in India (‘Defendants’), the Delhi High Court (‘Delhi HC’) rejected Crocs’ applications for interim injunctions for piracy of copyright in their registered design.Crocs had obtained design registrations under the Designs Act, 2000 for its perforated and non-perforated clog-type slippers/shoes in May of 2004. Crocs brought various infringement suits against the Defendants who were manufacturing and selling sandals with clog-type designs largely similar to Croc registered design. The Delhi HC was of the opinion that the registered designs ought not to have been registered in the first place and the registrations were liable to be cancelled as these designs were published and disclosed prior to their registration dates. This finding was arrived at on the basis of internet archival pages dated 2002 (which disclosed similar designs) from the website of Holey shoes. Evidence was also gathered from Crocs’ own website prior to 2004 which also revealed largely similar designs. On the issue of novelty and originality, the Court was of the view that the designs registered by Crocs were neither original nor novel as they were not significantly distinguishable from products already existing in the market and were mere ‘trade variants’ of a sandal, which did not deserve any exclusivity or monopoly.

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