Five famous trademark infringement cases

IndiGo, India's biggest airline carrier is facing turbulence. Tata Motors has issued notices on 'Indigo' name infringement (they forayed into sedans under the name Indigo in 2002) to the airline's parent Interglobe Aviation. As lawyers scourge for legal loopholes, here are other famous trademark infringement cases:

Hitch vs Partner:

It was Govinda's big comeback movie in 2007. Except that it alerted Sony Pictures Entertainment to the fact that Partner was an almost sceneto-scene lift of the Will Smithstarrer Hitch. The studio threatened a $30 million lawsuit in UK against the makers of Partner in 2007.

BMW vs Google

Search engine giant Google runs the risk of being slapped with a trademark infringement with the announcement this month of a new holding company called Alphabet. Unfortunately, Alphabet happens to be the name of a BMW subsidiary. A BMW spokeswoman said that they were looking into the matter. Battle-lines are drawn.

J K Rowling vs Nancy Stouffer:

The British novelist has been the victim of many copyright and trademark infringement allegations over her Harry Potter series. American author Nancy Stouffer alleged that Rowling borrowed heavily from her work Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. However, the evidence was found to be fraudulent and Stouffer was fi ned $50,000 for "intentional bad faith conduct".

Zostel vs Oyo Rooms

In April, the Peter Theil-backed OYO Rooms alleged that Zostel's hotel rooms booking platform, Zo Rooms, was based on data copied from them. They furnished enough evidence to result in a stay order and stopped Zostel from using that data. The next hearing on this case is in September.

Marvin Gaye vs Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke

In March, a jury found Williams and Thicke's 2013 hit song 'Blurred Lines' to be a copy of Mavin Gaye's 1977 hit 'Got to Give It Up'. The duo were asked to pay $7.3 million to Gaye's children, almost half of the 2013 hit's estimated profits of $16 million.