A civil court in Bangalore on September13, 2022 issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Samsung India and 'Story Experiences' from using the trademark 'CONCIERGE,' which is owned by the Concierge conglomerate Lesconcierges Services Pvt. Ltd. and Club Concierge Services (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Dipali Sikand, the plaintiff company's founder, claims to be the registered owner of the 'CONCIERGE' mark since May 2016.
It is claimed that the plaintiff company conceptualised and designed the 'President Club' loyalty programme for Samsung under the 'CONCIERGE' service with the goal of improving Samsung's overall relationship with its dealers. However, it is claimed that Samsung hired another firm 'Story Experiences' for similar services last year, and that both Samsung and Story Experiences are now using the plaintiff's 'CONCIERGE' mark on their brochures, publicity material, advertisements, and so on.
The defendants contended that, under clause 4(1) of the terms of agreement entered into between the plaintiff company and Samsung, the electronics company has every right to use the term coined during the Plaintiff's service contract. The court did note, however, that the documents produced by the plaintiff sufficiently disclose that Sikand has been using the term "CONCIERGE" for her services since 1998 and that it was only after Samsung became aware of such services that it hired the plaintiff company.
The materials also revealed that Samsung only used the term "CONCIERGE" after hiring the plaintiff company's services.
The plaintiff is clearly the firm with the word "CONCIERGE" in its name.
Whatever the agreement between the parties, the other party cannot claim ownership of the other party's inbuilt name."
The defendants also claimed that the word "CONCIERGE" is descriptive and therefore cannot be used as a trademark.
"It is true that the word 'CONCIERGE' is a dictionary word that means bellboy in a hotel," the bench said, rejecting this contention. It is important to note that the plaintiff does not work as a bellboy in any hotel."
It went on to say, "When the word has been used for different services other than the dictionary meaning, it will undoubtedly become distinctive." If the word was not distinctive, the plaintiff would not have obtained a trademark registration for the wordmark "Concierge".