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.
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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.
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