By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - An Indian court has

ordered an Amazon ( AMZN ) unit to pay $39 million in damages

for infringing the "Beverly Hills Polo Club" trademark after

garments with identical branding were sold on Amazon's ( AMZN ) India

website, a court order showed on Wednesday.

Indian lawyers called the ruling a landmark judgment in

terms of the amount of damages assessed against a U.S. firm in

trademark cases.

The case was initiated in 2020 by Lifestyle Equities, the

owner of "Beverly Hills Polo Club" (BHPC) horse trademark, which

alleged Amazon's ( AMZN ) India shopping website had listings of apparel

with a similar logo at a fraction of the price.

The infringing brand was owned by Amazon Technologies and

sold on the Amazon India website, the court said.

Amazon ( AMZN ) has denied wrongdoing. Company spokespersons in U.S.

and India did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the

court order.

"The logo which has been used is hardly distinguishable,"

the Delhi High Court noted in its 85-page order, which also

contained photos of T-shirts comparing the two marks.

Amazon ( AMZN ) "is well-aware of the exclusive rights of the

Plaintiffs in the BHPC mark and logo as it has been involved in

litigation" in multiple jurisdictions, including the UK, the

Indian court added, issuing a "permanent injunction".

"This is likely the highest damages sum awarded in a

trademark infringement suit in India ... It now remains to be

seen how this Indian judgment is enforced by the U.S. courts,"

said Aditya Gupta, a partner at India's Ira Law.

Amazon ( AMZN ) faced similar allegations in London by Lifestyle

Equities in 2019. Last year, Amazon ( AMZN ) lost an appeal against a

ruling that it had infringed UK trademarks by targeting British

consumers on its U.S. website.

In 2021, a Reuters investigation, based on thousands of

internal Amazon ( AMZN ) documents, found the U.S. company ran a

systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating

search results to boost its own private brands in India.