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Informist, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025

 

--HC bars Sammaan Cap from using "Sammaan" word till Svamaan Fin suit decided

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Monday restrained Sammaan Capital Ltd. from using "Sammaan" or any other name similar to Svamaan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.'s trademark till the final adjudication of the trademark infringement suit by the latter. In July, Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. had changed its name to Sammaan Capital Ltd. after planning to rebrand for over a year. 

 

"... a prima facie case of infringement is made out in favour of the plaintiff (Svamaan Financial) as the impugned mark 'Sammaan' is deceptively similar to the plaintiff's 'Svamaan' marks and the competing marks are used by the parties in relation to identical services, that is, for granting loans, which is likely to cause confusion in the market," Justice Amit Bansal said. Balance of convenience is also in favour of Svamaan Financial, the court said.

 

Svamaan Financial will continue to suffer irreparable loss, harm and injury if Sammaan Capital are permitted to carry on their businesses under the impugned marks, the court said. Svamaan Financial had objected to the defendants' adoption and use of the Sammaan marks at every stage, the court said. Despite that the company went ahead and adopted the Sammaan marks, the court said.

 

Svamaan Financial has been commercially using the Svamaan marks at least since 2019, the court said. Since Sammaan Capital has been using its old name at least till June 2024 and started advertising the Sammaan marks only with effect from July 2024, clearly, they cannot claim to have acquired goodwill and reputation in the said marks, the court said.

 

Svamaan Financial, which is a Reserve Bank of India registered non-banking finance company – microfinance institution, filed a trademark infringement suit against Sammaan Capital after it came to know that Indiabulls Housing Finance was planning to change its name to Sammaan Capital. Svamaan Financial has a total loan book of INR 9.68 billion as of Aug. 31, 2024.

 

Sammaan Capital's business primarily focuses on long-term secured mortgage-backed loans and has a balance sheet size of INR 730.66 billion as on Mar. 31, 2024.

 

On Monday, the shares of Sammaan Capital ended 4.1% lower at INR 143.09 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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