The main legal point established in the judgment is the application of the principle that a person shall not trade under a name so closely resembling that of the plaintiff as to be mistaken for it by the public, and the consideration of the exclusive right of the registered proprietor to use the trade mark.

( 1 ) THE plaintiff, M/s. Atlas Cycle (Haryana) Limited, a public limited company, has filed this suit praying for a decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendants from using their trade mark atlas or any other mark or name deceptively or confusingly similar to the said mark either as its trade mark or as part of its corporate name in respect of bicycles and bicycle parts or in any other manner infringing the registered trade mark of the plaintiff and for rendition of accounts etc. There are two defendante; the first defendant being a private limited company, namely, M/s. Atlas Products Private Limited and the second defendant, earlier an Additional joint President (Works) of the plaintiff company and now stated to be one of the promoters of the defendant company along with his wife. Along with the suit, this application under Order 39 Rule 1 and 2 read with section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been filed, seeking ad interim injunction, restraining the defendants from using the trade mark house of ATLAS or any other mark which is deceptively or confusingly similar to the trade mark atlas , during the pendency of the suit.

( 2 ) THE plaintiff s case, in brief, is that it is engaged in the business of manufacture of bicycles and bicycle parts under the trade mark atlas ; they are the registered proprietor of the said trade mark since 1952; they enjoy 26% market share in the business of bicycles and bicycle parts and on account of long user and the excellent quality of the goods manufactured and marketed by them for the last 50 years, their trade mark atlas has acquired a substantial reputation throughout the length and breadth of India and abroad and that the said trade mark signifies and connotes only the goods manufactured by them.

( 3 ) THE plaintiff claims that recently they have learnt that defendant No. 1 has introduced in the market bicycles under the trade mark "house of ATLAS and under the said trade mark they are surreptitiously manufacturing and marketing their product with a clear and obvious intention to deceive the public; that the defendant has copied plaintiff s trade mark "atlas by depicting the word "atlas" in a conspicuous fashion whereas words "house of" depicted in a smaller font are fairly inconspicuous, thereby giving a dominant impression on the word "atlas ; the adoption and use of trade mark "house of ATLAS" is with a dishonest intention and is calculated to cause deception and confusion in the trade and public that the defendant has a direct association with the plaintiff and in the process they are attempting to earn illegal profits by passing off the goods manufactured by defendant No. 1 as the goods manufactured by the plaintiff.

( 4 ) THE first defendant, in its written statement has taken preliminary objection to the maintainability of the suit, inter alia, on the grounds that the plaintiff has suppressed material facts regarding the relationship and understanding between the partiesnerernand that the trade mark and the corporate name of the first defendant was adopted with the complete knowledge of the plaintiff and, therefore, the plaintiff has acquiesced with the business of the defendant, disentitling them from any interim relief. It is stated that a substantial part of the shares of the plaintiff company are held by various members of the Kapur family, which comprised of three groups headed by three sons, namely, Bishambar Das Kapur, jaidev Kapur and Jagdish Kapur all sons of late Rai bahadur Janki Das Kapur: sometime in the year 1999, pursuant to an amicable decision, the three groups, comprising of the said three brothers, their sons and grandsons, decided to split the ownership, management and control of the companies and the assets owned by the family in three equal shares and to allot one share each to the three units of the family and in this behalf a Memorandum of Understanding was recorded on 8 january 1999: that according to the said Memorandu