IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY
(O.S.)
Kamdar S.U., J.
Bharati Cellular Ltd. & anr. - Plaintiffs.
Versus
Jai Distillers P.Ltd. - Defendants.
Notice of Motion No. 2685 of 2003 in Suit No. 2898 of 2003,
Decided on 21-3-2006.
Advocates appeared:
Virag Tulzapurkar with Amit Jamsandekar, Sindhu Shrivastav & Ms. Neha Phatak i/by. D.H. Law & Associates, for plaintiffs in support of Notice of Motion.
Salil Shah with Hemang Engineer & Avani Shah i/ by. Gordhandas & Fozdar, for defendants.
Passing off action - Injunction - Artistic work - Copyright - Trade mark - Similarity of marks - Common field of activity - Super brand - Descriptive words - Dishonest adoption.
Fact of the Case:
Plaintiffs, a telecommunication company, filed a suit for passing off action in the trade mark as well as for protection of copyright in their artistic work and passing off action of their proprietary artistic work. The defendants were using the mark 'AirTel' which was identical and deceptively similar to the mark of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs contended that the defendants by dishonestly copying the label as well as the word mark and are trying to pass off their business as that of the business of the plaintiff and thus the plaintiffs goodwill, business and reputation has been seriously suffered and affected. The defendants contended that the goods which are in the market of the plaintiff are distinctively different to the goods of the defendant herein therefore the user of a similar mark or similar get up in respect of different products altogether cannot result in any confusion among the consumers in the market.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the plaintiffs were entitled to an injunction restraining the defendants from using the mark 'AirTel' in respect of the said labels and the said design. The court also held that the plaintiffs were entitled to an injunction restraining the defendants from using the word mark 'AirTel'. The court found that the defendants had failed to give any satisfactory explanation for using the word mark 'AirTel'. The court also found that the use by the defendants of the said label with the identical font and identical mark was dishonest.
Issues: Whether the plaintiffs were entitled to an injunction restraining the defendants from using the mark 'AirTel' in respect of the said labels and the said design.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the plaintiffs were entitled to an injunction restraining the defendants from using the mark 'AirTel' in respect of the said labels and the said design. The court also held that the plaintiffs were entitled to an injunction restraining the defendants from using the word mark 'AirTel'. The court found that the defendants had failed to give any satisfactory explanation for using the word mark 'AirTel'. The court also found that the use by the defendants of the said label with the identical font and identical mark was dishonest.
Final Decision: Motion made absolute in the aforesaid terms.
2. Some of the material facts of the present case are as under:
3. The plaintiffs are a company inter-alia carrying on business in telecommunication services. The plaintiffs are also providing mobile services to various people in India and is a well known company in the name of AirTel.
The plaintiffs are carrying on business in various States of India and are having a large turnover and are owner of well known popular brand name AirTel. Sometime in or about 1994 the plaintiffs conceived and invented the word mark AirTel. The plaintiff have also simultaneously adopted a distinctive label mark consisting the word AirTel written in a particular manner with a particular colour combination. Plaintiffs are also contending that they are a group of companies who are using the said mark AirTel essentially in relation to business of telecommunication services. The plaintiffs have also contended that they have acquired a super reputation in their mark AirTel thus the said brand should be either treated as super brand or a universal brand. They have further contended that by virtue of such a status of super brand they are entitled to protection visa-vis all kind of goods using such a word mark AirTel. Plaintiffs have stated in the plaint that sometime in or about 2002 the plaintiffs commissioned the services of M/ s. Ray and Keshvan Designer for the purpose of creating an artistic work with the label mark using the word AirTel. It is their further case that Ms. Sujata Keshavan and Ms. Meeta Malhotra, the Creative Controller employed by the creative agency were entrusted with the work of creating the artistic work and they have created the design and artistic work for the plaintiff with the use of the word AirTel. The said artistic work is set out at Exhibit-D to the plaint which indicates use of the word in a particular manner with a different colour combination of Red, White and Black. According to the plaintiffs they also started using the said artistic work on the carton and/ or on the label on the packs for the purpose of distributing, marketing and selling their services since 2002. They have contended that they have sold their products and services with the said label on a extensive basis allover India and thus they are the sole proprietor of the said artistic design.
Plaintiffs have also filed an application for the registration of their word mark AirTel under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. The application is also filed for label mark and the same is also pending since 2002. Application for label mark with artistic work has been filed under the Copy Rights Act. The plaintiffs have stated in the plaint that they are using the said mark AirTel and the artistic work covered by the said label all over the country extensively and in support of the same the plaintiff have relied upon the sales figures and the figures of advertisement expenses indicating extensive sale of their products and the huge amount of money I spent towards the advertisement. Therefore I the plaintiffs company claim to be known by 1 the word AirTel in the market and thus plaintiffs are require to protect their business and goodwill in the market Plaintiffs claims to have as of today 30.71 million subscribers in almost 16 States and a customer base of 24% of the cellular subscribers in India i.e. the biggest and largest market in the cellular phone ser
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