Toyota denied rights to ‘PRIUS’ name in India

In a huge setback for Toyota, the Delhi High Court dismissed Toyota’s petition seeking exclusive rights to the ‘Prius’ name in India. Dismissing the plea seeking an order to restrain Prius Auto Industries from using the similar trademark, Justice Ms Indermeet Kaur held that Toyota failed to produce evidence against the Delhi-based firm.

Prius Auto Agencies have been functioning for the last six years and questioned Toyota on approaching the Court after such a long time. “Why Toyota slept over the matter and idled over it for a long period,” the court said, observing Prius Auto Industries has grown into a big company having bulk supply order from auto leaders such as General Motors, Hyundai and Mahindra and Mahindra.

Toyota further complained that its customers could get confused and deceived by confusing its car’s name with that of a spare parts manufacturer from Japan. This was also played down by the court.

We would also like to add that Ford was forced to rename its Everest SUV to Endeavour as another company had reserved that name in advance. Moreover, the Suzuki Splash is the Ritz in India as Ford owns the rights for the ‘Splash’ tag. Registration is vital to prevent copyright and we are sad that Toyota has lost this battle.

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