Dentons Link Legal is pleased to have successfully represented Groupe Les Ateliers Montréal Inc., the internationally reputed design house behind the acclaimed fashion label “DOMREBEL”, in a commercial intellectual property dispute before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court. The Company, headquartered in Canada, is globally recognized for its distinctive and original apparel designs and has established a formidable presence across leading fashion markets. The DOMREBEL brand enjoys substantial commercial goodwill and a consumer base worldwide, including in India, and is notably popular among global and Indian celebrities.
In light of unauthorized commercial activities in India involving the reproduction of the Company’s copyrighted artistic works and selling them on an identical website/social media accounts and misuse of the “DOMREBEL” trademark, Dentons Link Legal instituted a Commercial Intellectual Property Suit before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court. The Suit sought injunctive relief against the Defendants for infringement of copyright in original artistic works, passing off, and unauthorized use of the DOMREBEL mark, which was causing confusion among consumers and materially affecting the Company’s reputation and business interests. Relief was also sought to restrain the Defendants from operating misleading websites and social media accounts that were identical or deceptively similar to the Company’s official digital presence, thereby falsely projecting an affiliation with the DOMREBEL brand.
Upon consideration of the submissions and pleadings, the Hon’ble Court was pleased to grant an ex-parte ad-interim injunction, thereby restraining the Defendants from using the infringing designs, the DOMREBEL trademark, or from representing any association with the Company across digital or physical platforms. The Hon’ble Court further appointed Additional Special Receivers to carry out seizure operations in different cities, at the Defendants’ premises. During the execution of the Court's directions, our team successfully secured custody of over 5,000 infringing apparel articles, all of which unlawfully reproduced the Company’s original artistic works in violation of its copyright. This enforcement action is expected to substantially reduce the circulation of counterfeit goods in the Indian market and strengthen the exclusive proprietary rights of DOMREBEL over its artistic and commercial identity.
The team was headed by Sidhartha Srivastava, Senior Partner, along with Yasmeen Mohd. Sabir, Principal Associate, Noel Thomas, Senior Associate, Jahnvi Pandey and Chandan Swati, Associates on behalf of the Groupe Les Ateliers Montreal Inc.