Supreme Court: In a special leave to appeal filed by Wipro Enterprises Limited (‘appellant’) against the Kerala High Court’s Order, whereby, the use of trade mark ‘Chandra’ by Mariyas Soaps and Chemicals (‘respondent’) was refused to be restrained, the Division Bench of Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti, JJ. allowed the appeal and restrained the respondents from using the mark ‘Chandra’.
The appellants have a registered trade mark ‘Chandrika’. The trade name was registered in 1947 and all India registration was obtained in 1976. The appellant’s case was that the respondents marketed products with a deceptively similar name ‘Chandra’ and sold similar soaps and other products. The appellants contended that the respondents had no right or authority to market their products using the appellant’s trade mark. The District Court found that the mark ‘Chandra’ was similar to appellant’s trade mark ‘Chandrika’, hence, an injunction order was passed against the usage of the trade mark. Aggrieved by the said orders, the respondents filed an appeal before the High Court, whereby, it was held that the elements of passing off action were not established by the appellants, therefore, the District Court’s injunction order was set aside. Hence, the present appeal. The appellant’s contention was that the Kerala High Court did not correctly appreciate the law of passing off.
The Court restrained the respondents from using the trade mark ‘Chandra’, till the next date of hearing. The notice was issued by the Court and the matter was listed for hearing in January 2024.
[Wipro Enterprises Limited v. Mariyas Soaps and Chemicals, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1315, Order dated: 25-09-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the appellant: Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Khaitan & Co., Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta, Advocate Ankur Sangal, Advocate Pragya Mishra, Advocate Kiratraj Sadana
For the respondents: Advocate Swathi Hariprasad, Advocate on Record Amith Krishnan H
