Hello there,
I and Vijay Kumar Anadasu are the founders of Hogar controls. We would like to present the facts to the public notice about recent HOGAR CONTROLS legal controversies between Founders and the Investor (NRI US Citizen).
Short Summary
- Vijay and Karan founded ‘HOGAR CONTROLS’ & ‘Z-WAVE India’ in 2014/2016 and ‘Z-Wave India Pvt Ltd’ in 2017
- investor (U.S Citizen) joined Z-Wave India Pvt Ltd, which later got renamed into ‘Hogar Controls India Pvt Ltd’(HCIPL).
- ‘HOGAR CONTROLS’ & ‘Z-WAVE’ and ‘HOGAR CONTROLS India Pvt Ltd(HCIPL)’ are all separate business entities.
- investor arbitrarily took over operations of HCIPL in 2020. Following which, Business disputes aroused due to pending dues and fraudulent transfer of founder’s shares
- Founders separated from HCIPL terminating all business relationship with U.S Citizen in 2021 and continued business on ORIGINAL founding companies HOGAR CONTROLS and Z-WAVE after separation.
- U.S Citizen instigated several false cases against Founders which are in pending adjudication.
- Founders who own the Intellectual property and ‘HOGAR Controls’ trademarks initiated legal proceedings against investor, which are pending currently.
Detail Story
The Foundation
Karan Kumar and Vijay Kumar who were in Smart Home Automation business since 2012 founded their own brand ‘HOGAR CONTROLS’ in 2014 and formally registered the company in 2016.
Vijay Kumar who applied for the trademark in 2016 is still the sole owner of the trademark HOGAR CONTROLS. HOGAR CONTROLS trade mark and Intellectual Property rights were always owned by Founders on individually which were never transferred or sold to any other company or individual. Below link gives all details…
https://imkaran.com/hogar-controls-trademark-ownership-management-frequently-asked-questions/
Growth
HOGAR Controls products received appreciable market share with in short time due to their unprecedented designs, product quality and the market positioning by 2017. To give the business more structured approach, in year 2017 a separate private limited company under the name ‘Z-wave India Private Limited (ZIPL)’ was formed by the founders for distribution of smart home products which was later renamed into HOGAR Controls India Pvt Ltd for exclusive sales and distribution of HOGAR Controls Products.
Expansion
During course of time, ZIPL(HCIPL) received a business proposal from an NRI, U.S Citizen.
U.S Citizen with roots from India owns a HR staffing company in US. Matter of fact, he had no prior IOT/smart Home or distribution or retail or manufacturing business Experience.
The summary of the business partnership was that, U.S Citizen will open US market and Founders will continue to grow the Indian domestic market with an exchange of equity shares, investment (~1M$) and various other commitments.
Business restructure
When the new business partnership was formalised, it was decided to make ‘Hogar Controls India Private Limited’ (HCIPL) and make it as subsidiary by forming a US holding company ‘Hogar Controls INC’ to facilitate foreign direct investment and claim US Import tax benefits.
As investor was U.S Citizen, he was the only person at that point in time who could register the US entity HOGAR CONTROLS INC. On contrary, he recently started claiming that he is the Co-founder of HOGAR Controls, hiding the history. Fact is, US Citizen Joined as partner in a much established business entity which was founded and developed by the Founders.
Conflict
Unfortunately, even though Founders Vijay Kumar and his brothers acted in good faith and transferred their shares as per the new business structure, they never received the full agreed compensation. Apparently with fraud and deceit motive, U.S Citizen registered one another US entity called ‘Hogar Controls US’ in 2020 without the knowledge of founders and fraudulently transferred shares of the US holding company in which founders were stake holders.
While in 2020-21 U.S Citizen conspired to become the majority shareholder in the Indian entity HCIPL infusing the fraudulent idea of business realignment (Making Holding and subsidiary companies), he had been illegally and fraudulently coercing Vijay Kumar and his brothers to resign from the company board without paying for the shares aquired. In mid-2021 founders separated from the business partnership completely.
Following which, founders had taken remedial measures against the dishonoured and defective Agreements to cancel their association with the U.S Citizen.
Legal actions
Post separation, founders contacted U.S Citizen on several instances for resolving the issues amicably, for which there was no response from him. Hence, founders were compelled to instigate legal actions against the US citizen for the dishonoured payment commitments and fraudulent acts.
In April 2022, the Court of District Judge, Agra granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction order against the US citizen and He was restrained from trading, selling, or offering for sale of products under HOGAR Controls Brand name. For which, On May 2022, the US citizen filed an Application seeking vacation of the ex-parte ad-interim The Trade mark ownership related legal proceedings are pending in Agra Court, Allahabad High Court and Delhi High court as on date.
Facts remain Clear
Founders have worked tirelessly towards creating valuable business in Home Automation industry, and gained good business and personal reputation since 2012. The fact remains clear that, original companies ‘HOGAR Controls’ and ‘Z-Wave’ incorporated by founders and their Trademarks and Intellectual properties in were always with founders and still active as on date.
Z-wave India Private limited company which got renamed as HOGAR CONTROLS India Pvt Ltd in which U.S Citizen partnered and took unethical control is in legal disputes.
Investor Vengeance
U.S Citizen, in spite of unethical take-over of the business what is more appalling is that in a sheer act of vengeance, jealously and business rivalry has framed Founders Vijay, his brothers and former employees with baseless allegations and filed several false cases and heavily publicized them with paid PR and paid news to tarnish the personnel reputation of the founders after they separated from the partnership.
Legal actions
Following the False cases framed by investor, founders initiated various legal actions against U.S Citizen(investor) in USA and India
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