Asus’ Zenfone series of smartphones have fared well in the Indian market and thanks to the Zenfone Max Pro M1, the company has managed to establish itself in the overcrowded Indian smartphone market.
The company is now all set to launch the Asus Zenfone 6 in India and ahead of the launch, Asus is now entangled in some legal issues. The Delhi High Court has ruled that Asus has infringed on an existing trademark for the word Zen, which belongs to Telecare Network.
Telecare Network India Pvt Ltd, which claims to own the trademarks for Zen and Zen Mobiles had filed the case against Asus. The company sells feature phones as well as entry-level smartphones under this brand name and has claimed that the use of a similar branding by a competitor is damaging.
The Delhi High Court found these claims reasonable and restrained Taiwan-based Asus from selling any smartphone, tablet, or accessory with the ZenFone branding starting eight weeks after May 28th, i.e. July 23rd.
Telecare also claims that Asus used the Zen name to “ride upon its goodwill” when the company entered the Indian market back in the year 2014. On the other hand, Asus says that the word “zen” is common and has its roots in Buddhism.
However, Asus has appealed this decision and the next hearing is scheduled to take place on 10th July. So, either the company needs to win the next hearing or needs to change the branding for its smartphones in India.
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As said, this comes just ahead of the launch of the Zenfone 6 smartphone in India, which is expected to take place on 16th June. It remains to be seen if this legal issue will impact the launch scheduled of the company’s flagship smartphone in one of the world’s biggest smartphones market.
(Source)
