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| ICFAI told to pay $1 million for infringing trademark in US | |
| Kalpana Pathak / Mumbai November 03, 2009, 0:35 IST | |
The Hyderabad-based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) has been asked to pay over $1 million (around Rs 5 crore) to the US-based Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute in damages for using the CFA trademark in the US.
The September 2009 order came from the Virginia District Court in the US, where the CFA Institute had filed a suit against ICFAI, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. In an earlier order, too, of 1998, a US District Court had issued an injunction that prohibited ICFAI’s use of all CFA trademarks and confusingly similar trademarks in the US and Canada.
ICFAI, in its submissions to the court, identified revenues to the tune of $204,648 (Rs 96.10 lakh) that it earned in contravention of the injunction by selling case studies, books and magazines, offering examinations and fostering business associations with entities in the US and Canada.
Commenting on the development, an ICFAI legal team member said, “We are not going to sit tight on the matter. We will file an appeal on this in the court.”
The ICFAI-CFA tussle has been going on for over three years. In August 2006, ICFAI was ordered by the Delhi High Court (an interim injunction) to cease using the CFA and other trademarks of CFA Institute. The case is still pending.
The CFA Institute, on its part, is also involved in a legal battle with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which asked the former to cease conducting the CFA programme in India. The matter is currently pending before a division bench of the Delhi High Court, and an expert committee named by AICTE is formulating new regulations that would apply to international certification and credentialing programmes.
Additionally, the Delhi High Court has granted the CFA Institute permission to register candidates for the December 2009 exam in India. The CFA Institute, which tied up with National Institute of Securities Markets in India recently, said it plans to create university partnerships only after its court case is resolved. “We are not doing anything until the court case is going on,” said Ashvin Vibhakar, Managing Director of Asia Pacific Operations.
Vibhakar added that despite the its legal tangle, the CFA brand has worked and attracted over 14,000 students from India this year, against 10,000 students last year. India is the fourth largest market in terms of growth for the CFA Institute worldwide.
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