Supreme Court Refuses Flipkart Relief In MARQ Trademark Dispute, Gives 8 Weeks To Clear Stock

The Delhi High Court on April 10, 2026 had dismissed Flipkart's appeal and upheld the injunction in favour of Marc Enterprises. It held that “MARC” and “MARQ” were phonetically, structurally, and visually similar and likely to cause confusion among consumers.

A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said it was “not inclined to interfere with the impugned orders passed by the Trial Court as well as the High Court” and dismissed Flipkart's special leave petition.

The top court however, permitted Flipkart to exhaust products bearing the impugned “MARQ” mark within eight weeks and directed it to thereafter submit a compliance report before the trial court.

“However, in the facts and circumstances of this case, the petitioner is permitted to exhaust the product bearing the offending mark within a period of eight weeks and thereafter submit a compliance report to the Trial Court.”

The dispute arose after Flipkart launched and marketed electronic appliances under the “MARQ” brand while Marc Enterprises Pvt Ltd claimed prior rights over the “MARC” trademark, which it said had been used for electrical goods since the 1980s. Marc Enterprises filed a trademark infringement and passing off suit before the Delhi trial court seeking to restrain Flipkart from using the “MARQ” mark for allied goods.

On January 18, 2018, the trial court granted an ad-interim injunction restraining Flipkart from using the impugned mark, and later, on October 27, 2018, refused to vacate the injunction. Flipkart challenged the order before the Delhi High Court. During pendency of the appeal, the High Court had stayed operation of the injunction in November 2018.

The High Court also said that Marc Enterprises was the prior user of the mark and that addition of Flipkart's house mark was insufficient to distinguish the competing brands.

For Petitioner: Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Rajshekhar Rao, Advocates Ruby Singh Ahuja, Sidharth Chopra, Nitin Sharma, Shilpa Gupta, Kritika Sachdeva, Naman Tandon, Megha Dugar, Jappanpreet Hora, Surabhi Pande, Ranjeet Singh Sidhu, Tribhuvan Narain Singh, Keshav Sehgal, Aashna Chawla, Karanjwala & Co., AOR

For Respondent: Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, Advocates S. Janani, Ajay Amitabh Suman, Shravan Kumar Bansal, Deasha Mehta, Madhu Moolchandani, AOR