What's in a name you ask? A lot, if your surname is Lodha. Macrotech, among the country's largest real estate developers, which is run by Abhishek Lodha has approached the Mumbai High Court, in a bid to restrict House of Abhinanan Lodha (HoABL) from using the Lodha brand. Notably, HoABL is run by Abhishek's younger brother Abhinandan Lodha.
The Bombay High Court will hear the application on January 27.
Lodha Developers was set up by Mangal Prabhat Lodha back in 1980. Lodha, a BJP leader, won the assembly elections from Mumbai's Malabar Hill constituency for the seventh time in a row last year.
As a part of the company's reorganisation back in 2015, his elder son Abhishek got control of the real estate business, later renamed and listed as Macrotech Developers. Younger son Abhinandan later started his own real estate business under the House of Abhinanan Lodha brand. The separation was formalised through a family settlement agreement in 2017.
Macrotech contends since the family settlement was executed, it has been observed that the trademark 'Lodha' and 'Lodha Group' continue to be used by HoABL in their marketing materials and that there has been a lot of confusion in the market over the usage.
According to Macrotech, in view of the 2017 agreement, the defendants are prohibited from using the 'Lodha' or similar trademark.
While both the brothers are in the real estate business, they are in different areas. HoABL, established in 2021, has been involved in plotted developments in several cities. It has sold 12 million square feet and has another 38 million square feet under development. Marcotech, which went public in 2021, on the other hand, has developed multiple high-rise projects across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune and Bengaluru. Macrotech reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 10,316 crore in 2023-24 financial year.
"Lodha's brand has been built with lots of investment and effort over 40 years. It is critical for the company to protect its IPR and ensure that no other developer creates confusion of being similar to/ same as our brand," a spokesperson for Macrotech said.
The spokesperson further added that Macrotech's shareholders include the world's most renowned investors and one of India's largest charitable entities and are duty-bound to protect the company's "valuable rights."
In a statement, Abhinandan Lodha said, "Lodha Ventures and Lodha FinServ were given to me as part of the settlement process and the understanding was 'Lodha' name not to be used on a standalone basis in real estate and hence we have our companies as - Lodha Ventures, The House of Abhinandan Lodha - which is our real estate arm and Lodha Finserve (non operative now)."
He further pointed out that Macrotech has borrowed multiple times from his company Lodha Finserve from 2017 to 2020. "In aggregate, the loans amounted to over Rs 900 crore while the peak outstanding at any given point in time was Rs 175 crore," he noted.
Abhinandan Lodha feels family matters should not be settled in public and therefore chose to maintain silence for 10 years. But, now that a case has been filed, any recourse available will have to be legal, he added.