Lodha vs Lodha: Why India’s top real estate scions are in court

More than three years after carving up the real estate empire founded by their father, the Lodha siblings have landed in court.

Macrotech Developers Ltd on Monday asked the Bombay High Court to intervene and stop the House of Abhinandan Lodha from using the Lodha name. While Macrotech is led by elder brother Abhishek Lodha, 45, House Of Abhinandan Lodha is led by younger brother Abhinandan Lodha, 43.

The Macrotech petition pressed for an “urgent interim and ad-interim relief” so that the House of Abhinandan Lodha removes “all or any reference to the Lodha trade marks and/or any other mark/logo/label/trade dress identical with and/or deceptively and/or confusingly similar in any manner whatsoever.”

The Lodha name has attained distinctiveness and is “extremely popular” due to its open, continuous, exclusive and extensive use and publicity by Macrotech, the petition said. Macrotech is represented by Veritas Legal.

Abhinandan Lodha told Mint that the dispute may have been sparked by the success of his company’s plotted land business “which Macrotech Developers is unable to digest.”

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“There is no non-compete as of today not to carry business. We are very clear that we are into plotted development and not high-rise buildings, and largely operate in locations where Macrotech is not present and this was by choice,” the younger Lodha said.

“Lodha Ventures and Lodha FinServ were given to me as part of the settlement process, and the understanding was that the Lodha name was 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 added.

Macrotech was not part of the family settlement, as it was among family members, he added. “I continue to believe that family matters should not be settled in public. This is the reason I chose to maintain a dignified silence for over 10 years. I do hope that my family honours all the commitments made to me as I have delivered not only on all my commitments but also beyond, whenever called upon to help with advice , time and money. My mother has had to be an innocent bystander in this unfortunate episode,” said Abhinandan.

Macrotech had a different view.

“Lodha’s brand has been built with lots of investment and effort over 40 years,” a Macrotech spokesperson said in response to a query. “It is critical for the company to protect its intellectual property rights 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,” the spokesperson added.

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A text message sent to Abhishek Lodha remained unanswered.

The Macrotech petition said the company had done business of over ₹91,000 crore under the Lodha brand in the 10 years ending FY24, and spent over ₹1,700 crore in advertisements and marketing, staking exclusive claim to the name. Macrotech said it wrote to The House of Abhinandan Lodha on 8 September noting the latter was using Lodha, Lodha Group and certain domain names with the Lodha brand, which incorrectly suggests that they belonged to the latter. Macrotech said customers had also reached out for clarity on the matter.

“Accordingly, Defendant No. I was called upon to refrain from using and removing/ destroying/ rectifying any usage of Lodha or Lodha Group and/or any other name or mark which is identical or confusingly and/or deceptively similar or a derivative, in any manner whatsoever, and to issue a disclaimer on the landing pages of all websites used by Defendant No. 1 and its related/ associate entities that ‘House of Abhinandan Lodha has no connection with the Lodha group or the Lodha brand owned by Macrotech Developers Ltd’.

The complaint said the Lodha Group is developing over 40 projects across Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and Bengaluru, and is likely to enter other cities. Macrotech Developers, according to the complaint, had the largest land reserve in MMR region at the end of March last year and had developed about 100 mn. sq. ft of real estate.

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The House of Abhinandan Lodha was established in 2021 when Macrotech Developers went public. Privately held House of Abhinandan Lodha is part of Lodha Ventures, and the firm has developed land in Maharashtra, Goa, and Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

Macrotech ended Monday with a market capitalization of ₹1,20,365 crore. It reported ₹14,520 crore in pre-sales in FY24, its highest in a year.