Asus has prohibited from making use of the Zenfone brand name in India by Delhi High Court. The development comes as a huge shock for the company, which is planning to launch a wide range of smartphones under Zenfone 6 scheduled on June 19. The Asus ZenFone 6 was already launched in Europe with India launch on June 19.
With only a few days left for the official launch, the Delhi High Court has restrained the company from using the name Zen and Zenfone brand in India. Hence, the company won’t be able to launch the new smartphones unless the company gets a positive order from the highest court in India.
The Delhi High Court passed the order after a case was filed against Asus by New Delhi-based Telecare Network India Pvt Ltd. The company sources added that Telecase has been using Zen and Zen Mobile trademarks since 2008.
Telecare contested that Asus started to use the same name for selling smartphones. According to Telecare, the company sells smartphones for a budget-friendly price. If the judgment is not corrected, then Asus can’t sell smartphones, mobile accessories with the Zen and Zenfone brand trademarks.
Meanwhile, Asus has issued an official statement stating that their legal team is working closely with Delhi High Court to resolve the trademark lawsuit. Here is the official statement
The ASUS legal team is currently working with the Delhi High Court in India to resolve the Zen Mobiles and ZenFone trademark lawsuit. The supply of ASUS smartphones, notebooks, and other products, as well as technical support and after-sales service for all ASUS products, remain unchanged for all consumers.
We searched Google with Telecare Network India Pvt Ltd and saw few instances of smartphones with Zen branding. However, we are unable to locate the official website of the company. The court should have dismissed the petitions since the company no longer sells any active Zen branded products on any of the online stores. We wonder how judges are misled by the bleak arguments.
Asus could face problems with selling smartphones but there will be no problem with laptops since the Telecase doesn’t sell any laptops with Zen trademark name. Interestingly, Asus also coined the Android UI name as Zen UI and they need to modify to make sure that the word Zen is not used. However, many customers have already using the smartphones with Zen UI and it will be tedious to push updates.
The court rejected the arguments put forward by Asus and the next hearing is set for July 10. It remains to be seen as to how the company deals with this matter.
