The family feud between real estate moguls Abhishek Lodha and Abhinandan Lodha continued to escalate over the ‘Lodha’ trademark dispute, with the most recent development being Abhishek Lodha’s Macrotech Developers filing a Rs 5,000 crore lawsuit against the younger brother’s firm, the House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL). The brand infringement lawsuit, filed on January 20 in the Bombay High Court, seeks to restrain HoABL from using the word ‘Lodha’ in any form, claiming exclusive trademark rights to the name. The hearing is now scheduled for January 27.
The issue has been in the making since years now fuelled by longstanding disputes over the use of the ‘Lodha’ brand. Abhinandan Lodha had left the family business in 2017 to start the plotted development firm The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) under Lodha Ventures, which also include startup acceleration and other verticals.
The Lodha brothers are sons of BJP leader and Maharashtra cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.
Here is a look at how the events unfolded over the years and what’s the take of Lodha duo these:
Lodha Group was founded in early 1980s and it was in the business of offering residential and commercial properties under the brand name ‘Lodha’. The company saw a significant increase in debt between 2008 and 2024, which caused a lot of stress in the family. In 2011, the income tax department conducted raids on the company which led to damage to the company’s reputation. In 2014-15, governance issues were identified in the finance department which, at the time, was led by Abhinandan Lodha, according to the details shared by Macrotech.
Between 2015-2017, document shared by Macrotech stated, while initially it was agreed that each family member would take some assets and some debt, at later stage, Abhinandan Lodha insisted that “he does not want to handle so many customers, debt and construction and hence, wants only money”. This led to Abhishek Lodha and his parents left with Rs 20,000 crore of debt and Abhinandan Lodha separated to start a new business with payout of approximately Rs 10,000 crore. “Between 2015 and 2020, Abhishek Lodha and the family went through a ‘near death experience’ due to this baggage of huge debt,” the document maintained.
Later in April 2021, Macrotech Developers Ltd was listed on BSE and NSE and since the listing, it said that the stock price has gone up with the current market capitalization exceeding over Rs 1 lakh crore.
It further maintained that once Lodha Group’s perception started becoming strong post IPO, Abhinandan Lodha launched a real estate business (plots). “He initially tried to use Lodha’s logo in his campaign but was stopped by Abhishek. Thereafter, he started calling his business ‘House of Abhinandan Lodha’ (HoABL). The Trademark registry itself raised an objection that the ‘Lodha’ trademarks are same/similar/identical trademarks,” the document said. It further stated that while family members tried on many occasions to “make Abhinandan understand that he should do his own business in separate name and not try to pass off as ‘Lodha’, he has deliberately used this as a business strategy and continues to make all efforts to confuse customers that HoABL is part of / related to Lodha”.
The document confirmed that Abhishek Lodha has made multiple attempts, in his personal capacity, to get Abhinandan Lodha to correct the brand narrative that is being used by his companies not limited to HoABL. “However, the companies continue to infringe on the rights of Macrotech Developers in the usage of their brands ‘Lodha’ and ‘Lodha Group’ not only for marketing their new launches, but the same is also being used by their Channel Partners,” it said, while maintaining that
In a statement, a spokesperson from Macrotech Developers said, “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. Our shareholders include the world’s most renowned investors and one of India’s largest charitable entities – we are duty bound to protect our company’s valuable rights.”
Further, Abhinandan Lodha, Chairman, The House of Abhinandan Lodha, told FinancialExpress.com, “Lodha Ventures and Lodha FinServ was 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 – 1) Lodha Ventures, 2) The House of Abhinandan Lodha – which is our real estate arm, 3) Lodha Finserve (Non Operative now).”
He also talked about the multiple times wherein he and his companies had lent financial assistance to Macrotech Developers. “In aggregate, the loans amounted to over Rs 900 crore while the peak outstanding at any given point in time was Rs 175 crore. By 2019, Macrotech Developers Ltd was under severe funds crunch and the premium on international bonds spiralled signalling an imminent default. My elder brother Abhishek andMacrotech Developers Ltd approached me and out of the above funds, I gave loans in aggregate amounting to over Rs 900 crore while the peak outstanding at any given point in time was Rs 175 crore from my two companies, Lodha Finserve and Lodha ventures to Macrotech Developers Ltd. I was constantly requested to help out and I worked tirelessly to refinance and help Macrotech Developers Ltd as recent as 2019- 2020 as bankers had refused to lend further to Macrotech without my involvement with my Company’s corporate guarantees of Rs 250 crore, continuing personal guarantees in excess of over Rs 2000 crore. I further even mortgaged my own flat and raised funds to support Macrotech Developers Ltd.”
“All of this was done as a responsible member of the family and in the interest of the family.This is all a matter of record. For Macrotech Developers Ltd to borrow Rs 900 crore, take guarantee worth thousands of crores and request for security of property for their loans and then to question the same companies in my mind is extremely strange. The stakeholders of Macrotech Developers Ltd must consider the ramifications of such corporate governance on their long term value,” he added.
Abhinandan Lodha further maintained that the issue has been now raised looking at the success of HoABL, which “Macrotech Developers is unable to digest”.
“In the last four years that we have been in this business we have projects at 16 locations, sold 12 million sqft and have another 38 million sqft under development. Our Gross value of sales has been over Rs 6500 crore to over 7000 customers across 25 countries, 23 states, 107 cities which include top Indian cities including NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, and international cities like New York, London, Singapore, Dubai, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, etc,” he concluded.