Chief Justice

This appeal is directed against order dated 28 November 2012 of the learned Single Judge declining to grant ad-interim injunction in the appellant's Notice of Motion in the suit for infringement of the registered mark of the plaintiff and copyright and for passing off.

2. The products in question are playing cards. The plaintiff is the registered proprietor of the word mark "MERELANE" and a label mark of which "MERELANE NO.7" is a prominent feature. The defendant's mark is "MARICELL No.7". The learned Single Judge on perusal of the two marks came to the conclusion that there was no prima facie similarity between the words "MARELANE" and "MARICELL".

3. The appeal was admitted on 31 January 2012 and in view of history of past litigation, respondent-defendant was permitted to file affidavit-in-reply to raise all available contentions for arguing the Notice of Motion in the suit. The appeal has been taken up for final hearing and learned counsel for the parties have been heard at length on the Notice of Motion in the suit.

4. Before enumerating rival contentions, it is necessary to refer to relevant facts and also the history of litigation between these two very p