Asus Banned From Selling ZenFones in India - Delhi High Court

Update: Here is the official statement from Asus India.

The ASUS legal team is currently working with the Delhi High Court in India to resolve the Zen Mobiles and ZenFone trademark lawsuit. The supply of ASUS smartphones, notebooks and other products, as well as technical support and after-sales service for all ASUS products remain unchanged for all consumers.

Asus is a well known Taiwanese tech brand, especially for the Zen series of laptops and smartphones. In fact, just a few days before, the company launched the Asus ZenFone 6, one of the most affordable flagship smartphones of 2019, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC. Asus is now in a big intricacy, where the Delhi High Court has banned Asus from using Zen moniker on their products.

Backdrop

An Indian tech brand named Telecare Network has filed a case against Asus, stating that the company has been selling Zen series of smartphones in India, and the company also owns a trademark for the term "Zen" from 2018. The Telecare Network states that two different brands selling smartphones with the same name might create confusion for end users.

The company also blames Asus that, it took advantage of the Zen branding in India, which was created by Telecare Network. Asus entered the Indian smartphone market in 2014, and Telecare Network has been selling Zen branded devices from 2008.

Delhi High Court backs Telecare Network

After the first hearing, the Delhi High Court has issued a notice (which will come into existence after 8 weeks of order pass) that Asus using the Zen moniker in ZenFone and ZenBook might damage plaintiff's goodwill.

As of now, Asus is currently banned from using the term Zen on their smartphones, even though Asus fought back saying that world Zen cannot be considered as a generic mark, as it is a generic term, which means "school of Buddhism".

What do we think about this issue?

Though we think that Telecare Network is looking for some sort of advantage here, as Asus's ZenFone is one of the top five smartphones brands in India, and the company is known for affordable flagships and affordable mid-tier smartphones.

Though the company, Asus, has been banned from using the term Zen for the upcoming device, it is not going to affect the launch of the upcoming ZenFone 6, which is expected to be the most affordable smartphone (in India) with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC.