When Trade Mark Infringement occurs

When Trade Mark Infringement occurs when marks are deceptive similar in appearance to one another maybe even for a brief period to a customer at the initial stage In Armour Inc v. Anish Agarwal, 2025 SCC OnLine Del 3784, the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi held that if the customer looking at the infringing Marks associates the same with the plaintiff’s marks even for a brief period, the said marks of the plaintiff would be infringed under Section 29 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (‘Act’). It was further held that the Initial Interest Confusion Test proceeds on the principle that even if the infringing mark causes confusion, albeit limited to the initial stage only, it is sufficient to satisfy the condition of deceptive similarity as contemplated under Section 29 of the Act.

The very meaning is that even if momentarily a customer is confused and later makes enquiry that brief period of confusion is enough to come to a conclusion that there is infringement.

Prior user of trade mark is sufficient

The Supreme Court in S. Syed Mohideen v. P. Sulochana Bai, (2016) 2 SCC 683, held that that the rights of the prior user of the Trade Mark are superior over the rights of the prior registrant of Trade Mark. Which means if you are using a trade mark and have not registered it but someone else registers a trade mark deceptively similar to yours then the person using the trade mark without registration has an edge over the registered user of trade mark.

Conclusion for When Trade Mark Infringement occurs

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