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Wrong puncher gets a Punch

Surely a common office paper hole puncher couldn’t be the star of this case? Or could it be?

Background: We at Soroker Agmon Nordman, Advocates & Patent Attorneys represent Kangaro Industries (Regd.), a manufacturer of stationery products, based in Ludhiana, India. Kangaro’s products are distributed in many countries around the world and are a market leader in Israel, known for their commitment for quality.

Early this year, it came to our client’s attention that Zol Stock, an Israeli discount store chain, has been selling goods that infringe on Kangaro’s intellectual property rights.

The similarity between the original Kangaro products and the infringing goods was striking, to say the least. The infringing goods, imported from China, were designed to mislead consumers who believed they were buying original Kangaro products.

Take a look for yourselves, can you spot the differences?

Eran Soroker and Robert Dorneanu from our litigation team motioned the Central District Court on behalf of Kangaro, seeking a temporary injunctive relief on an ex-parte basis. The purpose of the ex-parte injunction was to prevent Zol Stock from dumping the infringing goods.

The Central District Court granted the motion and as such, Zol Stock must refrain from distributing the infringing goods. In addition, the Judge ordered Zol Stock to deposit all documents regarding the said goods, including receipts, invoices, price lists and orders, with an accountant.

After the injunction was granted, we negotiated further with Zol Stock representatives and secured additional undertakings by Zol Stock, some of which were not even motioned for within the motion for an injunction nor granted by the Court.

Zol Stock agreed to transfer all the infringing goods to our offices for destruction, to provide a report with regards to the infringing goods verified by an accountant including prices and quantities sold and to reveal the manufacturer of the infringing goods as well as presenting to us all importation documents.

These undertakings by Zol Stock were later incorporated into a Decision handed down by the Central District Court. Civil Case 76058-02-17 Kangaro Industries (Regd.) v. Zol Stock

And so – wrong punchers will not be punching in Israel…

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