Inditex, owner of the ZARA mark, appealed the Trade Marks Registry's refusal to cancel a third party's registration of ZORA (Registration No. 4310686 in Class 24). Justice Jyoti Singh held that a mark need not first be formally declared 'well-known' under Section 11(6)-(9) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 before its owner can invoke the cross-category protection available under Section 11(2).
Applying the anti-dissection rule, the Court found ZORA phonetically and structurally similar enough to ZARA that its adoption was without due cause and would take unfair advantage of ZARA's distinctive character and repute. The Court ordered cancellation of the ZORA registration and directed the Registrar to remove it from the Register within two months.
Owners of globally recognised brands do not need a separate, formal 'well-known mark' declaration already in hand before invoking Section 11(2) to block a similar mark in an unrelated goods category — reputation and distinctiveness evidence placed before the court can suffice on its own.