Gera Developments drags Godrej Properties to court
Pune-based builder Gera Developments Pvt Ltd has contested Godrej Properties Ltd’s use of the term ‘ChildCentric’ for promoting its project at Noida as a trademark infringement. The suit that came up for hearing on Tuesday pointed out that Gera had registered the trademark in 2008 and since then, the concept of ‘ChildCentric’ was deployed at several of its properties such as Emerald City at Baner, and the Emerald City, Song of Joy and Gera’s Greensville at Kharadi. Gera Developments has filed the suit against Brick Rise Developers Pvt Ltd, Godrej Properties Ltd stating that the company has learnt of the construction giant using the contentious phrase to market Godrej Nurture, a project under construction at Noida. Staking claim to the branding, Gera has underscored the huge investments made to build the profile, in contrast to Godrej Nurture’s ChildCentric being only about providing certain amenities in residential homes, making them child safe and incorporating playgrounds. Arguing the case in court of district judge PR Ashturkar, Gera’s advocate Gautam Karnik elaborated on the efforts taken by the Pune realtor to tie up with celebrities such as Lillette Dubey for theatre, Michael Phelps for swimming, Anil Kumble for cricket, Viswanathan Anand for chess, Shiamak Davar for dance, Shankar Mahadevan for music, Mahesh Bhupathi for tennis and Bhaichung Bhutia for football, among others, and ensuring that each of the ChildCentric properties had an academy by these experts. He even specified that Gera had spent over Rs 4 crore towards these brand-building initiatives. The suit has insisted that Godrej’s use of ChildCentric not only infringed on an established trademark, but also took “undue and unfair advantage of the goodwill and reputation” Gera had painstakingly built in the field of real estate development. The advocate termed the usage of the term by the pan-India realtor as illegal and unauthorised, and sought an ad interim injunction from the court, stopping Godrej Properties from deploying the phrase at Noida or any other project. He appealed that Gera has suffered, and is likely to suffer further irreparable loss of business and reputation due to Godrej’s use of ChildCentric.
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