Overview
- The Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe declined to interfere and directed the single-judge trial court to proceed uninfluenced by earlier observations, keeping the question of law open.
- In July 2025, a Delhi High Court Division Bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Ajay Digpaul restored Crocs’ suits, holding that a passing off action can be maintainable even when the configuration is registered as a design.
- A single judge of the Delhi High Court had in February 2019 dismissed six passing off suits at a preliminary stage on the ground that the claimed configuration was already protected as a registered design.
- Bata India and Liberty Shoes argued that allowing such suits creates a dual monopoly contrary to the Designs Act’s 15‑year limit and cited Carlsberg and Mohan Lal precedents, with counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Saikrishna Rajagopal advancing the challenge.
- Crocs alleges several Indian makers copied the shape, configuration and perforation pattern of its clogs and asserts passing off as a distinct common-law remedy based on goodwill, with counsel saying the suits have been pending for over a decade.