Don't Like The Smell Of This

17 years ago

Days after an Indian perfume tycoon and his wife were charged with enslaving two Indonesian domestic workers, his company announced that it was suing L’Oreal and Giorgio Armani perfumes for trademark infringement of his men’s cologne, Attitude.

Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani and his wife Varsha Sabhnani are charged with beating and scalding their domestic maids with hot water. Prosecutors allege the women were forced to repeatedly climb stairs and take up to 30 showers in three hours as punishment. Police were called after one of the maids was discovered wandering outside a doughnut shop wearing only a pants and a towel.

The couple are free on $3.5 million bail. Their attorneys described them as “model citizens” who “only want to clear their names.”

In his civil lawsuit, Sabhnani claims that he trademarked his perfume in 1995, but neglected to renew the trademark. L’Oreal began promoting a cologne with the same name in March 2007.