Kinetic Green Changes ‘Zulu’ Bike Name Slightly In Settlement With Yulu In India

Earlier this year, we discussed a trademark infringement suit in India between two eBike companies. One was Yulu, which operates the kind of eBike rental stations you can find in all kinds of cities throughout the world. The other was Kinetic Green, which sells a line of eBikes that it branded the “Zulu” bike. As I mentioned at the time, while this doesn’t come across as the kind of absolutely crazy claim of potential customer confusion given the similarities in the names, I still didn’t think such confusion would really arise:

As you will see, the look and feel of the products themselves is quite disimilar. Add to that the fact that Yulus seem to be in the category of eBike rental stations scattered throughout cities, versus the Zulu product just being a thing you buy, and it’s hard to see how anyone is going to seriously get confused here.

And now let’s tack on the fact that “Zulu” is itself a very recognizable term, having been the name for a large ethnic group that exists in southern Africa. This isn’t two fanciful names that sound alike, but rather one original name and one that has solid footing in the global lexicon. Again, where is the confusion really going to occur here?

Between that analysis and the fact that Kinetic Green indicated that it was essentially itching for this to go to trial, even asking the courts to push up the trial dates so they could get started, I had thought this dispute might actually go all the way to a trial decision. That doesn’t appear to be the case.

Instead, the two companies have entered into a settlement agreement. And while the full details of the settlement are not available, we do know that Kinetic Green’s eBike will be coming back to market, albeit with a nearly insignificant change to its brand name.

ETAuto learns that after settling the matter out of court, a Compromise Petition was filed in the Commercial Courts last week. With this move both parties will withdraw their respective contests in the courts. Under the settlement terms, Kinetic Green will rechristen the Zulu e-scooter as e-Zulu ‘shortly’. It will have another naming layer of Kinetic Green or KG in front of the tweaked brand name.

The article then quotes Kinetic Green talking about how it is satisfied with this resolution.

Which… of course it is? All it has to do is add an “e-” to the Zulu brand name to make the lawsuits go away. The obvious question in all of this is why in the world this is enough to satisfy Yulu. It’s complaint was that the “Zulu” brand was too close in name and sound to Yulu. Slapping an “e-” in front of “Zulu” does little if anything to change that. In other words, if Yulu thought it had a valid concern before, why doesn’t it now?

Perhaps it’s because Yulu’s lawyers warned the company that the suit might be a stinker. Or perhaps the addition of the KG name to the brand was enough to calm Yulu down.

Either way, this sure seems like a lot of time, energy, and effort all for a single letter and a dash.