Founder loses Spartan Poker trademark suit vs rival faction

The legal spat to use the Spartan Poker trademark in India has been resolved, and it’s a loss for Rajat Agarwal.

The Pokerguru founder filed a lawsuit in January against Spartan Online Poker Pvt. Ltd. and its executives including Amin Rozani, Rajeev Kanjani, Rohit Bhalla, Peter Abraham and Sameer Rattonsey. The four were former members of the Indian Poker Championship (IPC) who launched a new company that operates TheSpartanPoker.com website.

Incidentally, Agarwal’s group is also operating a website with the name “Spartan Poker,” sparking an ugly, legal battle between the two factions over intellectual property rights and corporate governance norms.

The fight has been put to rest—for now—by a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, which allowed Rozani’s group to continue its operations using the Spartan Poker brand and domain name.