NEW DELHI: Japanese automobile major Toyota lost a legal battle in the Supreme Court for exclusive trademark rights over 'Prius', the name under which it had launched its first mass produced hybrid car in Japan in 1997 and in the UK, Australia and the US in 2000-2001.The main reason for Toyota losing exclusive use of the 'Prius' trademark in India was the late launch in the country, in 2010. It found that an auto spare parts maker, Prius Auto Industries, had been using the name 'Prius' as well as 'Toyota', 'Toyota Innova' and 'Toyota Device' for automobile parts it manufactured and supplied to the car manufacturing giant.After several rounds of litigation in court, which Toyota had moved to protect its trademarks, the auto parts maker was restrained from using the name 'Toyota', 'Toyota Innova' and 'Toyota Devices'. However, the Delhi-based auto parts maker was permitted to use the 'Prius' trademark.Toyota moved the SC seeking to restrain the auto parts manufacturer from using the name 'Prius' and said it had obtained trademark registration of 'Prius' in Japan in 1990 and eventually in other countries. Even proof of knowledge about Prius with that section of small population, which kept domain knowledge about automobiles, is not prominent. "Agreeing with the HC, the bench said, "The brand name of the car Prius had not acquired the degree of goodwill, reputation and the market or popularity in the Indian market so as to get Toyota the necessary attributes of the right of a prior user so as to successfully maintain an action of passing off even against registered owner (Prius Auto Industries)."

Source: Times of India December 18, 2017 23:37 UTC