Louboutin’s fight for single colour trademark protection

The debate over single colour trademark protection saw some interesting developments this year. The Christian Louboutin brand, famous for its red-sole shoes, enjoys trademark protection for various marks under classes 3, 14, 18 and 25. It appears to have a strong ground for enforcement against infringement and passing off.

However, even after three major cases in Delhi High Court, the status of the famous red sole trademark remains undecided.

Delhi High Court had issued two injunctions to uphold the red sole trademark, except in Louboutin v Abubaker, which was dismissed. An appeal in this colour trademark protection case is still pending, the decision on which might decide the fate of the case.

Harshada Wadkar is a senior associate at LexOrbis.