Indian court allows Crocs to pursue infringement challenges
The court's announcement late on Tuesday comes just as another international brand, Prada, is facing heat in India for showcasing sandals during a Milan fashion show which were similar to Indian ethnic footwear, sparking a nationwide furore. Prada later acknowledged they were inspired by Indian designs.
Crocs had sued six companies including Switzerland-based Bata 's India unit as well as local players Relaxo and Liberty for allegedly copying the shape of its footwear but an Indian court had said in 2019 that the case could not be taken up citing technical grounds.
Crocs however filed an appeal in which the high court on Tuesday gave it permission to pursue the case saying "the dismissal of Crocs' suits cannot sustain in law."
In the original court challenge, Crocs said the rivals should be restrained from selling the footwear which it called an obvious imitation of its rubber clogs.
Liberty, one of the companies sued by Crocs, argued that Crocs was not the originator of the designs and it too had merely copied the clog shape of footwear in use by others much prior.
Launched in Colorado in 2002, Crocs' quirky, bright and comfortable resin shoes quickly attracted a cult following. Over the years, they have become popular in India, where they are sold across several footwear stores.
India's footwear market is set to be worth $33.86 billion this year, according to market research firm Statista, and 97% of the market is dominated by non-luxury footwear.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
Unmanned narco-submarine equipped with Starlink seized in Colombia
The Colombian navy on Wednesday, July 2, announced its first seizure of an unmanned narco-submarine equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast. The vessel was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources based in the region told Agence France-Presse (AFP) they believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel. "It was being tested and was empty," a naval spokeswoman confirmed to AFP. Manned semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine north from Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico. But in recent years, they have been sailing much further afield, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The latest find, announced by Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo at a press conference, is the first reported discovery in South American waters of a drone narco-submarine. The navy said it was owned by the Gulf Clan, Colombia's largest drug trafficking group and had the capacity to transport 1.5 tonnes of cocaine. A video released by the navy showed a small grey vessel with a satellite antenna on the bow. This is not the first time a Starlink antenna has been used at sea by suspected drug traffickers. In November, Indian police seized a giant consignment of meth worth $4.25 billion in a vessel steered remotely by Starlink near the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands. It was the first known discovery of a narco-submarine operated by Starlink. Rozo said the use of autonomous subs reflected the traffickers "migration toward more sophisticated unmanned systems" which are hard to detect at sea, "difficult to track by radar and even allow criminal networks to operate with partial autonomy." A near record number of the low-profile vessels were intercepted in the Atlantic and Pacific in 2024, according to the report. In November last year, five tonnes of Colombian cocaine were found on a semi-submersible en route to faraway Australia. Cocaine production, seizures and use all hit record highs in 2023, the UN drug agency said last month. In Colombia, production has reached record levels, fueled by surging global demand. Colombian law punishes the use, construction, marketing, possession, and transportation of semi-submersibles with penalties of up to 14 years in prison.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
US-Vietnam trade deal sows new China uncertainty
The Southeast Asian nation has the third-biggest trade surplus with the United States of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in the US president's "Liberation Day" tariff blitz on April 2. The deal announced Wednesday is the first full pact Trump has sealed with an Asian nation, and analysts say it may give a glimpse of the template Washington will use with other countries still scrambling for accords. The 46 percent rate due to take effect next week has been averted, with Vietnam set to face a minimum 20 percent tariff in return for opening its market to US products including cars. But a 40 percent tariff will hit goods passing through the country to circumvent steeper trade barriers -- a practice called "transshipping". Washington has accused Hanoi of relabelling Chinese goods to skirt its tariffs, but raw materials from the world's number two economy are the lifeblood of Vietnam's manufacturing industries. "From a global perspective, perhaps the most interesting point is that this deal again seems in large part to be about China," said Capital Economics. It said the terms on transshipment "will be seen as a provocation in Beijing, particularly if similar conditions are included in any other deals agreed over coming days". 'The looming question' Shares in clothing companies and sport equipment manufacturers -- which have a large footprint in Vietnam -- rose on news of the deal in New York. But they later declined sharply as details were released. "This is a much better outcome than a flat 46 percent tariff, but I wouldn't celebrate just yet," said Hanoi-based Dan Martin of Asian business advisory firm Dezan Shira & Associates. "Everything now depends on how the US decides to interpret and enforce the idea of transshipment," he added. "If the US takes a broader view and starts questioning products that use foreign parts, even when value is genuinely added in Vietnam, it could end up affecting a lot of companies that are playing by the rules." Vietnam's government said in a statement late on Wednesday that under the deal the country had promised "preferential market access for US goods, including large-engine cars". But the statement gave scant detail about the transshipment arrangements in the deal, which Trump announced on his Truth Social platform. Bloomberg Economics forecast Vietnam could lose a quarter of its exports to the United States in the medium term, endangering more than two percent of its gross domestic product as a result of the agreement. Uncertainty over how transshipping will be "defined or enforced" is likely to have diplomatic repercussions, said Bloomberg Economics expert Rana Sajedi. "The looming question now is how China will respond," she said. "Beijing has made clear that it would respond to deals that came at the expense of Chinese interests." "The decision to agree to a higher tariff on goods deemed to be 'transshipped' through Vietnam may fall in that category," added Sajedi.
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Greek farm fund scandal to impact discharge of Commission's budget
A scandal involving Greek use of EU agricultural funds is set to play a role in the EU Parliament's discharge of the Commission budget later this year, the co-chair of the European Parliament's Intergroup on Anti-Corruption has told Euronews. German Green MEP Daniel Freund was commenting on the "fake farmer" fraud scandal, a sprawling case that has triggered political turmoil in Greece and raised questions over the management of EU agricultural subsidies. The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) announced in May that it has an ongoing investigation into an alleged organised fraud scheme involving agricultural funds and corruption involving public officials of the Greek Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aids (OPEKEPE). Five high-ranking Greek government officials, including a minister and three deputies, resigned on Friday following allegations of involvement in the case, which stems from the alleged mismanagement of EU subsidies for agriculture between 2019 and 2022 by OPEKEPE, a government agency tasked with handling the funds. According to the EPPO, a "significant number of individuals" received subsidies through the agency based on false declarations, including claims of owning or leasing pastures that were in fact public land. 'In September 2024, Greek authorities placed OPEKEPE's accreditation on probation, and an action plan was designed to address the deficiencies identified,' a European Commission spokesperson told Euronews, adding: 'The Commission is working closely with the Greek authorities in this context.' Freund called on the European Parliament's budget control committee to investigate whether the alleged fraud points to deeper structural issues in Greece's management of EU funds. 'This issue will for sure play a role into the discussion on the discharge of the Commission's budget after the summer,' he said. The Commission said it could not comment on ongoing EPPO criminal investigations or criminal trials. Under EU law, member states must accredit only those paying agencies that meet minimum standards for managing EU funds, and if an agency fails to meet these conditions, it must be placed under probation and eventually stripped of its accreditation. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has publicly acknowledged the scandal as 'evidence of the state's inadequacy' in addressing corruption, pledging to establish a special taskforce to conduct a swift and thorough investigation. 'Clientelism cannot govern the way we conduct business,' he told his cabinet, vowing that 'since OPEKEPE didn't manage to do its work, the state will do it centrally.' In June the Athens-based EPPO referred to the Hellenic Parliament information regarding the alleged involvement of two former Ministers of Rural Development and Food in criminal offences. The Greek Constitution provides that only the national Parliament has the power to investigate and prosecute serving or even former members of the Greek government. This legal limitation has forced EPPO to split its investigation, a move the office argues undermines its mandate under EU law. EPPO has reported this issue to the European Commission, suggesting that national legal protections for ministers could limit the EPPO's competence and therefore be in breach of the EU's prosecutorial framework. Former agriculture minister Makis Voridis, who was serving as migration minister until recently, was one of those who resigned last week. 'I hope that the Greek Parliament lifts the immunities of MPs involved, in order to allow a proper investigation,' Freund said.
