Delhi High Court on November 28 postponed the hearing of billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. trademark infringement case against Gurugram-based battery seller Tesla Power India to April 2025. The move by the HC came after parties said that the mediation to settle the dispute is still ongoing.
The case was first filed by Tesla Inc. in May this year, alleging Tesla Power India of trademark violation. Consequently, it is accused that the violation is misleading customers into believing that the Gurugram-based company has some association with Elon Musk’s electric vehicles firm.
Timeline of Tesla vs Tesla
Elon Musk, who is eyeing entering the Indian electric vehicle market, is proactive to protect his company against any trademark violation related and avoid any harm to its reputation. The case filed in Delhi HC is in alignment with the same.
The battery seller told the court that it has informed its partners and vendors to remove the ‘Tesla’ logo from electric scooters made by an EV manufacturer, E-Ashwa. E-Ashwa is the company with which the Gurugram-based firm had a marketing venture. The battery seller said that it had sold around 699 e-Ashwa scooters under the Tesla trademark. After hearing both sides the court in its order restricted Tesla Power from promoting and selling products with the Tesla Inc. trademark.
However, Tesla Inc. told the court that Tesla Power continued selling e-scooters with the former’s logo and the customers purchased the batteries thinking it was associated with Elon Musk’s EV maker. The EV maker also said that it has received certain complaints from the customers who had purchased the battery from the Gurugram-based company.
After hearing the matter, in June the court referred it for mediation as the two companies agreed to resolve the issues.
This isn’t the first clash that Musk has faced in India. Apart from eyeing the EV market, the billionaire is also keen on entering the Indian telecom sector. But his debut has already sparked competition amongst the Indian telecom giants like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel and given rise to differences in spectrum allocation.
