Delhi High Court: A Later Registration Does Not Defeat the Prior User of KIEHBERG
Photo: Tim_Bastian / Pixabay
The Delhi High Court has permanently restrained Capital Airgun Manufacturers Pvt Ltd from using the mark KIEHBERG and cancelled its registration, in a suit brought by German company Kiehberg GmbH and its Indian distributor (CS(COMM) 808/2024, judgment of 13 October 2026).
Kiehberg said it had sold air rifles, air pistols and shooting accessories in India under the mark since 2012. Capital Airgun applied for the identical mark in September 2023 on a "proposed to be used" basis and obtained registration in May 2024. It did not appear to contest the suit.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav found that Kiehberg was clearly the prior user. He noted that KIEHBERG is the German company's corporate name and that its adoption by a trader in identical goods "cannot be a mere coincidence". On the effect of the defendant's registration, he held: "the registration gives the defendant no right to pass off its goods as those of the plaintiffs."
The court also accepted that the threat of infringement was real and imminent, even though Capital Airgun had not yet launched KIEHBERG-branded products, and said that a bare trade mark application by itself would not have been enough to sustain the suit. It ordered the defendant to surrender all material bearing the mark for destruction. In a separate order on the same day it cancelled the Class 13 registration. Kiehberg did not press its claims for an account of profits and Rs 2 crore in damages.
For brand owners in Indonesia, the case is a reminder of a principle that also runs through Indonesian practice: a registration obtained in bad faith over another trader's established name is vulnerable. Indonesia is a first-to-file system, so prior use alone carries less weight than in India, but a cancellation action before the Commercial Court on bad-faith grounds remains available.
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