Mumbai News: Lodha Brothers Resolve Disputes, Clarify Brand Ownership Amid Forgery And Trademark Infringement Allegations
Mumbai: In a significant development, the Lodha brothers — elder brother, Abhishek Lodha and younger one, Abhinandan Lodha — and the companies led by them, have amicably resolved all outstanding disputes under the guidance of their parents. They are sons of Mangalprabhat Lodha, a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis ministry in Maharashtra and BJP legislator from Malabar Hill.
In a joint statement, the brothers said Macrotech Developers Ltd. (“MDL”), is the owner of, and has the exclusive right to use, the brand names ‘Lodha’ and ‘Lodha Group’. Abhinandan Lodha, is the owner of, and has the exclusive right to use the brand name ‘House of Abhinandan Lodha’ (“HoABL”).
"`Lodha Group’ and ‘House of Abhinandan Lodha’ have no connection with each other. Both entities will communicate this widely," the statement added.
Abhinandan has no rights or claims in Lodha Group or MDL or other businesses of Abhishek. Abhishek has no rights or claims in HoABL or other businesses of Abhinandan.
Both Abhishek and Abhinandan expressed their gratitude to Justice R.V. Raveendran, retired judge of the Supreme Court, who was requested by the Bombay high court to mediate in the dispute among the brothers over the use of the Lodha name. The court order was in response to the petition filed by Abhishek.
Macrotech Developers Ltd (Lodha) had recently informed stock exchanges about alleged forgery and fraud committed by the House of Abinandan Lodha (HoABL). The latter, however, denied the allegations outright.
Macrotech alleged the HoABL "fabricated" a board resolution and a PAN card of an ex-chairman and MD of Dena Bank and director of Lodha, Ashwani Kumar. "This was done with an intent to mislead customers and sell plots in Goa and other projects under the 'Lodha' name," it further alleged.
Macrotech Developers, formerly known as the Lodha Group, of Abhishek Lodha had earlier moved the Bombay high court with a trademark infringement suit to restrain HoABL from using the brand name "Lodha" in any manner and has sought Rs 5,000 crore in damages. Abhinanda Lodha had separated from the Lodha Group in 2015 and started HoABL. The separation was formalised through a family arrangement.
Macrotech alleged that HOABL falsely made customers believe that they are buying from India’s number one real estate brand - Lodha.
Macrotech alleged in a statement that "the seed of the scam was sown in 2022, when Varpan Land Developers Pvt Ltd, a lesser known company of House of Abhinandan Lodha, passed a resolution in their board meeting on July 12 (2022) to change their name to Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd or Lodha Bhoomi Nirman Pvt Ltd. But it’s far from that simple to use the Lodha name, as the trademark is owned by Macrotech Developers Ltd.
"Within days of obtaining this resolution, which paved the way for use of Lodha name, on August 3, 2022 Ashwinder Matharu, chief of operations, strategy and investments with HoABL, raised a service request with the RoC to change the name of “Varpan Land Developers Pvt Ltd” to “Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.”
A day later, on August 4, RoC’s central registration centre at Manesar gave a nod to the change of name. The very next month, HoABL started using Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd to obtain permissions and market one of their projects in Goa. The intent seems to be to deceive the customers of HoABL into believing that they are dealing with Lodha, India’s number one real estate company.
As of now it is known that at least one of the HoABL projects in Goa was sold using this name between September 2022 and April 2023. Once the project sales had progressed, in April 2023, the name of the company was changed once again to “HOABL Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt Ltd” with a view to ensure that the misuse of the Lodha name would pass undetected.
"The only glitch, which has recently been uncovered by y Macrotech Developers, is that the resolution dated July 24 2022, which allowed change of name to Lodha Landbuild Infrastructure Pvt and use of trademark Lodha, is forged. There was no board meeting of Macrotech Developers Ltd on July 24, 2022.
news