*

Damages awarded are highest in a trademark case in India,

lawyer

says

*

Court rules apparel sold on Amazon India had almost

identical

logo to "Beverly Hills Polo Club"

*

Amazon India denied wrongdoing in dispute

(Updates February 26 story to add comment from ruling party

lawmaker in paragraphs 11-12, context in paragraph 2, 13)

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. It comes after an India antitrust investigation

found Amazon ( AMZN ) flouted competition laws by giving preference to

select sellers on its India website - charges the company

denies.

The trademark 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's ( AMZN ) India entity 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 logos.

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.

Praveen Khandelwal, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, told Reuters on Thursday the

Indian government must take action against Amazon ( AMZN ) for its

"predatory" business practices.

"The court's decision underscores the critical need for

e-commerce platforms to enforce stringent trademark compliance,"

said Khandelwal, who is also the secretary general of the

Confederation of All India Traders which has opposed Amazon's ( AMZN )

business practices.

In November, India's financial crime fighting agency

raided offices of some sellers operating on Amazon ( AMZN ) and

Walmart-owned Flipkart in a separate investigation into alleged

violations of foreign investment rules.