Amanresorts Limited and Amanresorts International Pte Ltd (Amanresorts) are two companies under the umbrella of the Amanresorts Group. Amanresorts are the proprietors of various trade marks comprising the word Aman and/or the prefix Aman including Amanusa around the world (but their Amanusa mark in Singapore was not renewed at the relevant time). Amanresorts operates many exclusive and luxurious hotels and resorts around the world and Amanusa is one of Amanresorts' exclusive high-end resorts in Bali.

In 2006, Amanresorts discovered that a Singapore real estate developer, Novelty Pte Ltd (Novelty), had named one of its local condominium projects Amanusa. Consequently, Amanresorts, who did not have a trade mark registration for Amanusa in Singapore, brought an action of passing off against Novelty. Amanresorts also claimed that their Aman marks were well known and therefore sought protection under Section 55 of the Singapore Trade Marks Act (the Act).

Amanresorts presented substantive evidence to prove their case and claimed that Novelty's use of their trade mark would lead to the "gradual whittling away" of their trade mark, the loss of branding fees and the loss of opportunity "to use the name Amanusa or other Aman-prefixed name for their own real estate developments in Singapore...".

Novelty, on the other hand, contended that Amanresorts did not have the requisite goodwill and reputation in their Aman marks in Singapore. Further, the customers who purchased or were interested in purchasing a unit in the condominium project were not persuaded by the Amanusa name, and thus the Amanusa name did not help in their sales.

Further, they argued that they had invented the name Amanusa by combining two common Malay words together. Another argument they raised in support of their case was the fact that the Street and Building Names Board (Board) had approved the name unconditionally, which would not have been the case if they were aware of another development with a similar name and the possibility of a likelihood of confusion. Since the name was approved unconditionally by the Board, Novelty did not conduct any further checks on the name Amanusa.

In 2007, the High Court decided that if Novelty continued to use the name Amanusa for their development, this was likely to cause damage to the goodwill of Amanresorts. Based on the facts and evidence presented, Amanresorts won their legal action against Novelty. The High Court accordingly decided that there was passing off, i.e. there was goodwill and reputation in the Aman and Amanusa trade marks; there was a real risk of misrepresentation (a likelihood of confusion); and there was a probability of damage (intangible damage) to Amanresorts if Novelty were allowed to maintain the name of its project as Amanusa. The High Court also agreed that the Amanresorts' trade marks are well known and granted the injunction to restrain Novelty from using the name Amanusa. In view of this decision, Novelty was ordered to change the name of its condominium project.

As a result of the High Court's decision, this case became a landmark decision for Singapore as it was the first case where the Singapore Courts had, in recognising a trade mark as being well known, restrained another party from using it.