HC upholds bar on Aqualite from selling slippers similar to Relaxo's design
This story was originally published at 15:20 IST on 18 November 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Tuesday upheld a single-judge order of 2021 that had restrained Aqualite Industries Pvt. Ltd. from manufacturing and selling "hawai" slippers, which were similar to Relaxo Footwears Ltd.'s designs registered under the Designs Act, 2000, pending disposal of the main suit filed by the latter.
The division bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla said Aqualite's footwear were identical in shape and configuration to Relaxo Footwears' designs. The registration of Relaxo Footwears' designs was not, prima facie, liable to cancellation under Section 19 of the Designs Act, said the division bench. "The learned single judge has, to our view, correctly injuncted Aqualite from manufacturing or dealing in footwear which replicates the suit designs or is deceptively similar, in design, thereto," the bench added.
Relaxo Footwears manufactures, among other kinds of footwear such as "hawai" slippers, the Indian avatar of flip flops. Relaxo Footwears said the primary novel feature in the registered designs of its footwear was the existence of vertical ridges along the sides of the footwear.
In 2021, Relaxo Footwears had learnt that Aqualite was manufacturing and selling footwear in the market that were replicas of its own registered footwear designs, and alleged that this constituted piracy.
Aqualite claimed that the designs which were being asserted by Relaxo were "lacking in novelty vis-a-vis prior art". The main feature of Relaxo's designs, the side ridges, was not novel as it was found in the footwear of other manufacturers as well, it said.
At 1449 IST, shares of Relaxo Footwears were down 1.2% at INR 422.90 on the National Stock Exchange. End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Tanima Banerjee
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