Delhi High Court Restrains Man From Using 'Barbie' Trademarks, Orders Removal Of References From Social Media

Granting relief to Mattel Inc, the Delhi High Court has restrained a man from using “Barbie” trademarks in relation to commercial kitchen equipment, event management and catering services.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora restrained Padum Borah from using marks like Barbie, Barbie One Stop Solution For Horeca & Foods Processing, Barbie Enterprises, Barbie Hospitality, Barbie Catering, Barbie Kitchen Mart or any other deceptively similar variant of Mattel Inc's registered “BARBIE” trademarks.

The Court also directed Borah to remove or takedown all their social media pages or accounts, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, referring to the impugned marks.

The judge granted ad-interim injunction in favour of Mattel Inc in its trademark infringement suit against Borah. It was contended that the trademark BARBIE was adopted in 1959, introducing the first doll named after co-founder Ruth Handler's daughter, Barbara.

The suit said that in August last year, Mattel Inc came to know about Borah using the impugned marks and that he had also filed an application for trademark registration.

It was submitted that in his reply before the Trademark Registry, Borah said that his use of the word BARBIE, in combination with other expressions, was distinctive and unlikely to cause confusion but also admitted that BARBIE was a well-known brand name.

Borah did not appear before the Court despite advance notice and even failed to file reply to Mattel Inc's cease and desist notice.

Going through the record, the Court noted that Mattel Inc is the registered proprietor of the trademark BARBIE, has been using the said trademark since 1959 and that the trademark is a coined term.

“On a bare perusal of the above-mentioned table, it is evident that the Plaintiff's trademark BARBIE is the dominant element, and the impugned marks of the Defendant No. 1 are visually identical to that of the Plaintiff's trademark,” the Court said.

It added that BARBIE was the dominant prefix and was visually, phonetically and conceptually identical to Mattel Inc's marks. The Court said that the adoption of the famous mark by Borah was without any reasonable explanation.

“It is apparent that the Defendant No. 1 has adopted this famous mark so as to create an initial interest in the mind of the consumer with respect to the products of the Defendant and to capture the customer's attention,” the Court said.

Title: MATTEL INC v. PADUM BORAH AND ORS

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1230

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