Delhi High Court rejects Volkswagen’s appeal, Maruti Suzuki’s TRANSFORMATION trademark gets approval

Delhi High Court has completely rejected the appeal of German automobile giant Volkswagen AG. A single bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora gave this important decision on 12 March 2026. Actually, Volkswagen had opposed the registration of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s TRANSFORMATION trademark saying it was similar to its popular 4MOTION mark.

Earlier a complaint was made to the Trademark Registrar regarding this. After this, VW has moved the High Court. The court upheld the 2023 decision of the Trademark Registrar and gave relief to Maruti Suzuki. Now this trademark of Maruti can be registered in Class 12 (Vehicles). Let us know what the whole matter is and what the court said regarding this controversy.

What is the matter?

Maruti Suzuki had filed trademark application number 2990453 on 22 June 2015. The trademark registrar advertised it. Volkswagen filed a Notice of Opposition claiming that ‘Transformation’ is deceptively similar to their registered mark ‘4Motion’ (Registration No. 1388469, 2005). The Registrar rejected Volkswagen’s objection and approved Maruti’s application in December 2023. After this, Volkswagen filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court.

Volkswagen’s argument

The company said that Maruti has completely copied their ‘4Motion’ and only added the ‘Trans’ prefix. ‘4Motion’ is their intelligent all-wheel drive (AWD) system, which is used in models like Tiguan. He claimed that this could create confusion among consumers.

Maruti Suzuki’s answer

Maruti told the court that the word ‘motion’ is common in the automobile industry. Transformation is a wordplay of transformation, reflecting the technology transition from analog to digital speedometers in their vehicles. He provided evidence of use of the mark since 2016, while Volkswagen introduced it in 2017.

court analysis

Justice Arora said that both the marks should be seen as a whole. There is no similarity visually. One starts with 4 numeric and the other starts with trans alphabets. Phonetically the pronunciations are also different, transformation and formation. Conceptually both are also different from each other.

One reflects the AWD system and the other technology transition. The court said that motion is a common term in the auto industry. Both companies have independent and strong goodwill in India. Cars are bought thoughtfully, so there is no scope for confusion.

The court clarified that it is confident that consumers will not buy Maruti Suzuki products mistaking them for Volkswagen. Citing old decisions (like Corn Products vs Shangrila), he said that marks cannot be dissected. This decision is a big victory for Maruti Suzuki.