Delhi High Court: Subramonium Prasad, J., granted an interim injunction in favour of Tata Sons (P) Ltd. in a case where the defendant has got a domain name registered which is identical to the website of their e-commerce arm.
Plaintiffs’ Counsel, Pravin Anand submitted that plaintiff 1, holding company of the TATA Group of Companies was the owner and registered proprietor of the trademark TATA as well as the device mark TATA. Plaintiff 2 was a part of the TATA Group and engaged in the business of e-commerce, dealing in various products through its e-commerce platform www.tatacliq.com.
It was submitted that the above domain name was registered by plaintiff 2 and defendant 1 was the owner of the domain name: www.tatacliqsmart.com which is identical with the plaintiff’s website.
Adding to the above submissions, it was stated that the defendant had added the word ‘smart’ in the domain name which was not permitted. Defendant was selling the products of plaintiff 1 company on its website, which amounted to infringement of the plaintiffs registered trademark and copyrights.
Another contention was that defendant 1 through its website www.tatacliqsmart.com was selling various TATA products at throw away prices and there was a likelihood that by using the word TATA the defendant would be selling the products which were not actual products of TATA but fake products.
Bench tried opening the website www.tatacliqsmart.com and found that the website could not be opened, however, the screenshots produced by the plaintiffs show that the website was being used for online sale of several products including products of plaintiff 1. Hence it was apparent that defendant 1 had shut down the website only because the present suit was filed.
Court opined that the plaintiffs made a case of grant of interim injunction.
Matter to be listed before the Roster Bench on 19-07-2021. [TATA Sons (P) Ltd. v. Electro International, 2021 SCC OnLine Del 3743, decide on 28-06-2021]
Advocates before the Court:
For the Plaintiffs: Mr Pravin Anand, Mr Achuthan Sreekumar and Mr Rohil Bansal, Advocates
For the Defendants: Mr Mrinal Ojha and Mr Debarshi Dutta, Advocates for Defendants Nos.2 and 3.
About Justice Subramonium Prasad:
Justice Subramonium Prasad graduated in B.Com. (Hons.) from Delhi University. He acquired his LLB degree from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in the year 1990. Justice Prasad cleared the Advocate-On–Record exam in 1996 and started his independent practice. He became the Standing Counsel for the State of Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court of India in 2003, a post he held till 2006. He was also the standing counsel for the custodian appointed under the Special Court (Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities) Act, 1992, dealing with cases pertaining to the 1992 stock exchange scam. In October 2012, Justice Prasad was appointed as the Additional Advocate General for the State of Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court of India. Justice Prasad was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India in April 2015.
Over his career spanning 28 years, Justice Prasad has worked on several high profile matters, and has been involved in several reported judgements of the Supreme Court on various subjects like Constitutional Law, Tax, Corporate and Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Election Law, Service Law and Inter-State River Water Disputes.
Justice Prasad was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Madras High Court on 4.06.2018. He was transferred to Delhi High Court as an Additional Judge on 13.03.2020 and confirmed as a Permanent Judge of the Madras High Court on 17.03.2020.
Source: Delhi High Court Website
