Himachal Pradesh High Court: In the present application, Mohan Meaking Ltd. (‘plaintiff’), a proprietor of ‘Old Monk Coffee’ alleged that the ‘Old Mist’ coffee-flavoured rum, being sold by Eston Roman Brewery & Distillery (P) Ltd. (‘defendant’) was akin to the one being sold by the petitioner, and prayed that the defendant to be restrained from selling the infringing product. A Single Judge Bench of Ajay Mohan Goel, J., observed that the plaintiff had a registered trade mark and its infringement could not be allowed and passed an ex parte interim order restraining the sale and distribution of the defendant’s product, i.e. Old Mist Coffee Rum.
The plaintiff stated that it was a pioneer in the liquor industry and the third largest rum manufacturer in the entire world with breweries and distilleries in various parts of the country. Whereas, the defendant company was incorporated recently on 31-7-2023 and was engaged in manufacturing, supplying and distributing coffee flavored rum under the mark or label ‘OLD MIST’. The plaintiff submitted that it had a duly registered trade mark of its product, namely, ‘Old Monk Coffee’ which was registered on 9-6-2022 and its trade mark certificate was valid up to 22-11-2031.
The cause of action accrued when the plaintiff discovered that the defendant was manufacturing and selling the said product in Goa in June, 2025. It was alleged that the defendant was bottling its product and labeling it in such a manner as to pass it off as the plaintiff’s product and did not even have any registered trade mark vis-à-vis the offending product.
The Court examined the plaintiff’s and defendant’s product labels and found a prima facie case of trade mark infringement in favour of the plaintiff due to the similarity of the defendant’s product. The Court opined that if the infringement was allowed to continue, it was likely to cause confusion on the part of the public and the defendant could easily pass off its product as that of the plaintiff. The Court further noted that the balance of convenience was also in favour of the plaintiff as it had a registered trade mark, whereas the defendant had none and held that irreparable loss would be caused to the plaintiff if the defendant was allowed to continue the sales.
Therefore, the Court ordered that the defendant would be restrained from selling and distributing its product, i.e. the Old Mist Coffee Rum, either by themselves or through their representatives, distributors, employees, etc. The matter has been further listed on 8-9-2025.
[Mohan Meaking Ltd. v. Eston Roman Brewery & Distillery (P) Ltd., OMP No. 940 of 2025, decided on 9-7-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: C.A. Brijesh, Krisna Gambhir and Arvind Sharma, Advocates.