German luxury products manufacturer Montblanc has taken legal action against ecommerce portal “digaaz.com” for selling counterfeit pens manufactured by the company online at cheaper rates, reports Bar&Bench. A Delhi High Court bench last week issued an ‘ex-parte, permanent injunction’ to Montblanc after the court found digaaz.com guilty of infringing trademark designs, and symbols owned by the German manufacturer. An ex-parte injunction is delivered by a court after hearing only one party of the case, with or without issuing notices to the defendant (second party). Advocates representing Montblanc said that the website sold counterfeit products ‘marketing’ it as genuine selling them at “discounted rate” of up to 75% and this has led to losses for the company. The domain name 'digaaz.com' seems to be taken down after the order. “…due to the sale of counterfeit products (Monblanc) has suffered loss in business and also loosing of reputation and image and confidence aand trsut to the client…” the statement read (pdf). Montblanc claimed damages of Rs 20 lakhs, but the court did not grant any damage settlement stating that the German manufacturer “have not produced sufficient evidences to show the extent of actual damages they had suffered…” Interestingly the report pointed out that French luxury goods maker Cartier International sued digaaz.com in January last year, for selling counterfeit goods. At that time, Delhi HC awarded damages of Rs 1 crore to Cartier while the website did not file any counter arguments or statements with the court. A quick look-up on Digaaz.com shows that…
