Court orders condo to drop Amanusa name
Court finds developer’s use of name likely to damage Amanresorts’ goodwill
The prestigious Amanresorts Group has won a court battle to force a condominium project in Yio Chu Kang to be renamed.
Local property developer Novelty had named its condo Amanusa, but the court found that this was likely to cause damage to the goodwill of the Amanresorts Group, which runs a well-known luxury resort in Bali also called Amanusa.
The court decision last week found that although no buyers had purchased units in the uncompleted project thinking it is related to Amanresorts, allowing Novelty to call its project Amanusa may cause the name to lose its uniqueness.
Justice Tay Yong Kwang said that the name which ‘inspires hushed awe’ may in future ‘evoke suppressed laughter’ because of the association with projects that are not as luxurious and well-maintained, especially when residential projects start to show their age.
He rejected Novelty’s argument that it came up with the name through the creative inversion of two words as it is too coincidental that it chanced on the same two foreign words and decided to fuse them in exactly the same way that Amanresorts did 15 years ago.
Justice Tay added that he found it hard to believe that in this Internet age, Novelty did not make any searches to see if the name exists in some language and if so, whether it could mean something quite unintended or untoward.
Rooms at the Amanusa resort start from US$700 per night. The group also owns and manages 18 luxury resorts around the world in countries such as Morocco, Bhutan and France.
Amanresorts was represented by Alban Kang and Koh Chia Ling of Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva. Mr Kang said this is the first time the local courts have declared a mark to be a well known, which means it is entitled to special protection not given to an ordinary trade mark.
Source : Business Times - 14 May 2007
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