‘Fair and Handsome’ v. ‘Glow and Handsome’; Calcutta HC rules in favour of Emami in Passing Off Dispute Against Hindustan Unilever
Unfair advantage through conscious adoption of a competitor’s mark leads to potential confusion and deception”
Passing off
‘Right to use one’s name on one’s goods cannot be compromised’; Delhi HC denies injunction to Jindal Industries for mark ‘JINDAL’ against mark ‘RN JINDAL SS TUBES’
“The risk of having others bona fide using ‘JINDAL’ as a name for their products, and in the marks used on their products, is a risk that plaintiff consciously took, when it obtained registration of the mark ‘JINDAL’.”
[NOVA v NOVYA Trademark Dispute] Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction in favour of Sterling Agro Industries
Sterling Agro Industries emerges victorious in the trademark clash between NOVA and NOVYA, as Delhi High Court decrees in their favor, enforcing a permanent injunction against the defendants and awarding litigation costs.
Madras HC injuncts Nirlon Kitchenware from infringing and passing off Prestige’s lid from its Svachh series of pressure cookers
Madras High Court said that the lids were identical as the design was one and the same and added that the Prestige was in the market of manufacturing pressure cookers for a long time and their trade mark is well known and their turnover was huge
[Trade mark Infringement] Madras HC restrains sale of Sunfeast Mom’s Magic butter cookies in blue wrapper, being deceptively similar to Britannia Good day
There will be confusion in the market, especially, in the nature of the product being Cookies, sold in the shelves of supermarkets, any ordinary customer looking at the shelf is bound to be deceived. Therefore, the product of ITC Ltd. is deceptively similar to that of Britannia.
‘INDIAN STAG’ deceptively similar to ‘ROYAL STAG’, but no case of passing off made out in favour of Pernod Ricard India: Delhi High Court
“In view of pictorial depiction of stag, the “STAG” part of plaintiff’s mark has necessarily to be held to be its essential and dominating feature and the use, by defendant, of word STAG along with pictorial depiction of stag, clearly indicates imitation, by defendant, of essential features of plaintiff’s mark.”
[Glucon-D v Gluco-D] Delhi High Court restrains Cipla from using GLUCO-C and GLUCO-D for its energy drinks
Delhi High Court grants injunction against Cipla Healthcare from using the marks Gluco-C or Gluco-D either by themselves or as part of the marks Prolyte Gluco-C ++ or Prolyte Gluco-D ++ being deceptively similar to the plaintiff registered marks GLUCON-C or GLUCON-D respectively.
Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Calvin Klein for marks ‘CK’, ‘Calvin Klein’, ‘ck one’ used for perfumes
“Testers are being sold by the defendants, Xeryus Retail (P) Ltd. masquerading them as perfumes of the plaintiff, Coty Germany GMBH for sale, thereby, luring customers into paying money for such testers which are otherwise, not to be commercially dispensed.”
“Can’t claim exclusive monopoly on generic word ‘VASUNDHRA’”; Delhi High Court refuses to grant interim injunction to Vasundhra Jewellers
“A party that has made an assertion that its mark is dissimilar to a cited mark and obtains a registration based on that assertion, is not to be entitled to obtain an interim injunction against the proprietor of the cited mark, on the ground that the mark is deceptively similar.”
[SANGEETHA v NEW SANGEETHA] Exception of bona fide use of name as trade mark does not extend to the name of spouse: Madras High Court grants permanent injunction
Madras High Court has also granted the plaintiff a decree for permanent injunction restraining the defendant from committing passing off of its restaurant business by using deceptively similar trade mark.
[Kent Cables v. Kent RO] Delhi High Court permanently restrains Kent RO from selling fans under ‘KENT’ mark
Kent Cables who is admittedly prior registrant of the trade mark ‘KENT’ has, prima facie, succeeded in showing ‘prior user’ and adoption of the trade mark ‘KENT’ for fans.
Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Infiniti Retail Ltd for its ‘CROMA’ mark
User traffic may be diverted due to the same or similar domain name, which can result in a user mistakenly accessing one domain name instead of the one intended. A domain name might, therefore, have all characteristics of a trade mark and could result in an act of passing off.
Delhi High Court grants ad interim injunction to ‘Royal Green’ whisky against ‘Royal Queen’, having similar trade dress
A customer of average intelligence and imperfect recollection, who comes across the plaintiff's Royal Green Whisky on a particular date and, later, comes across the defendant's Royal Queen product, will be confused between the two.
Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to a well-known mark ‘VIVANTA’ against the mark ‘VIVANTA VACATION CLUB’; awards Rs. 6 lakhs costs
The use of ‘VIVANTA VACATION CLUB' as a part of a trade name will likely deceive unwary consumers of their association with the mark ‘VIVANTA' as a domain name can have all the characteristics of a trade mark and could result in an act of passing off.
Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Google LLC for its mark “GOOGLE” and awards Rs. 10 lakhs as damages in a trade mark infringement case
The Delhi High Court granted permanent injunction in favour of Google LLC for its mark “GOOGLE” and awarded Rs. 10 lakhs as damages to Google LLC which was to be paid jointly and severally by the defendants.
Delhi High Court holds plea regarding ‘invalidity of registrations’ granted in favour of the trademark BURGER KING as untenable
Delhi High Court observed that no issue regarding the validity of the registrations of trademarks of the plaintiff is liable to be framed in the facts and circumstances of the present case.
Delhi High Court restrains Parle company from using FAB!O being deceptively similar to Cadbury’s OREO
A consumer of average intelligence and imperfect recollection who has earlier purchased and had the OREO cookie would, when he sees the FAB!O cookie pack, be clearly likely to associate the FAB!O cookie with the OREO cookie that he had earlier enjoyed (ass uming he did). That, by itself, satisfies the test of —initial interest confusion.
[Trademark v. Domain Name] Bombay HC holds trademark infringement suit is an action in personam; Court cannot impose a blanket ban on “Swiggy” mark in future
“The Court held that in every case of trademark infringement, the plaintiff claiming infringement of its registered mark is required to claim relief in the context of specific instances of infringement, relatable to individuals against whom orders can be passed by the Court.”
Delhi High Court restrains Brompton Lifestyle Brands from using Yves Saint Laurent marks and alike
There was no written authorisation in Brompton's favour to use the YSL marks in relation to the Boutique, the goods offered from the Boutique and otherwise. Thus, the Court held that Brompton could not be considered as a “permitted user” of the YSL marks.
Arbitrability of Intellectual Property Rights’ Disputes: An Affirmative Step
by Yash Vardhan Garu and Hetvi Mehta