 "Billionaire Lodha brothers clash over brand rights, Bombay HC to hear case")
Real estate billionaire Lodha brothers are in a legal battle over use of the “Lodha” brand.
BSE-listed Macrotech Developers, led by elder brother Abhishek Lodha, has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to stop younger brother Abhinandan Lodha’s entities from using the brand name for their businesses.
The HC is scheduled to hear the matter on Tuesday, according to court filings.
In its petition, Macrotech Developers stated the “Lodha” brand has acquired significant goodwill and reputation, as evidenced by the fact that between FY14 and FY24, the company generated over Rs 91,000 crore in business under the “Lodha” brand. It spent Rs 1,700 crore on advertisements and marketing. It further claimed common law rights over the “Lodha” name/marks due to its prior adoption and use since the early 1980s. Business Standard has reviewed the petition.
When contacted, a Macrotech spokesperson said the Lodha brand has been built with lots of investment and effort over 40 years.
“It is critical for the company to protect its intellectual property rights (IPR) and ensure that no other developer creates confusion of being similar to / same as our brand. Our shareholders include the world's most renowned investors and one of India's largest charitable entities. We are duty bound to protect our company's valuable rights,” the Lodha spokesperson said.
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When contacted, Abhinandan said Lodha Ventures and Lodha FinServ was given to him as part of the family settlement with an understanding that the “Lodha” name was not to be used on a standalone basis in real estate.
Hence, they had companies named as Lodha Ventures, The House of Abhinandan Lodha (the real estate arm) and Lodha Finserve, now non operative.
Abhinandan said he will respond legally to the notice by Macrotech.
In 2019, he said Macrotech Developers was facing funds crunch and the premium on international bonds spiralled — signalling an imminent default.
“My elder brother Abhishek and Macrotech Developers approached me and out of the above funds, I gave loans in aggregate amounting to over Rs 900 crore. The peak outstanding at any given point in time was Rs 175 crore from my two companies — Lodha Finserve and Lodha Ventures — to Macrotech Developers. I was constantly requested to help out and I worked tirelessly to refinance and help Macrotech Developers as recently as 2019-20. Bankers had refused to lend further to Macrotech without my involvement with my company’s corporate guarantees of Rs 250 crore, continuing personal guarantees in excess of over Rs 2,000 crore,” he said in reply to an email queries by this paper.
In its petition, Macrotech said in view of the 2017 agreement, the defendants are expressly prohibited from using the Lodha trademarks and/or any trademark deceptively similar.
It said the defendants have suppressed material and relevant facts from the trademark registry and also made several misrepresentations while making applications in respect of / securing registration of the impugned marks.
“The registration of the impugned marks by the defendant are ex-facie illegal, fraudulent and of a nature that ought to shock the conscience of the court,” Macrotech said. It appealed to direct Abhinandan-owned businesses to stop using the Lodha brand name.