Delhi High Court rules in favour of Rapido bike taxi in trademark dispute

The Delhi High Court recently ordered cancellation of an individual's trademark registrations for the mark 'RAPIDO' following a plea by Roppen Transportation Services which operates the bike-tax aggregator under 'Rapido' name [Roppen Transportation Services Vs Nipun Gupta].Justice Amit Bansal allowed the petitions moved by Roppen seeking cancellation of the registrations held by one Nipun Gupta. “It is clear that the impugned mark has been adopted by the respondent no.1 dishonestly to trade upon the goodwill and reputation of the petitioner under the RAPIDO marks and to associate itself with the petitioner. Therefore, the continuation of the registrations of the impugned mark in the name of the respondent no.1 in the Register of Trade Marks is in contravention of the provisions of Section 11 of the Act and is liable to be cancelled under the provisions of Section 57 of the Act,” the Court said..Gupta had obtained registration of Rapido under classes 12, 25, 39, and 42 on March 2, 2020. Class 12 deals with vehicles, class 25 deals with footwear, class 39 deals with travel and travel arrangement and class 42 deals with technology and software services. Roppen challenged these registrations, contending that the same could cause confusion in mind of the public. It argued that Gupta’s marks were identical and registered with a “proposed to be used” basis, creating a likelihood of confusion among consumers..The Court found Roppen to be the “prior adopter and user of the well-reputed RAPIDO marks”, with its earliest registration dating back to 2017. It then applied the “Triple Identity Test” stating that, “The impugned mark is identical with the petitioner’s RAPIDO marks and is registered in classes 12, 25, 39 and 42 in relation to identical / similar goods and services. Further, the target consumers of the competing parties are identical. Thus, the Triple Identity Test, i.e., the existence of an identity / similarity between the respective marks, goods/ services and trade channels is satisfied in the present petitions.”.Further, it opined that impugned mark is likely to cause confusion and deception among the consumers, who are ordinary persons of average intelligence and imperfect recollection.It noted that Roppen has been using the RAPIDO marks since 2015 and has acquired immense goodwill and reputation thereunder.Accordingly, the Court directed the Trade Mark Registry to cancel the registrations held by Gupta.“The Trade Mark Registry is directed to remove the impugned mark ‘RAPIDO’ bearing trade mark nos. 4459206 in Class 39, 4459194 in Class 12, 4459197 in Class 25, and 4459208 in Class 42 in the name of the respondent no.1 from the Register of Trade Marks," it ordered..Rapido was represented by advocates Aishwarya Kane, Kruttika Vijay and Chhavi Tokas..[Read Judgment]