( 1 ) THE plaintiffs claiming to be engaged in the sale of suitcases all over the globe have instituted the suit against the defendants stating that the defendants have infringed the plaintiff s copyright in drawings; the defendants are passing off their goods and they are imitating the trade dress in making the suitcases to sell their products. The defendants resist the case of the plaintiffs on various grounds. In view of the fact that the parties relied heavily on their respective pleadings to project their respective contentions and the arguments covered a very wide canvass, it has become necessary for me to refer to the pleadings in the first instance and then to deal with the rival contentions put forth at the time of the arguments and the precedents referred to by the learned Counsel for the parties.

( 2 ) THE case of the plaintiffs could be recounted in the following terms. The first plaintiff Samsonite Corporation is a Company operating under the State of Delaware Colorado in the United States of America. The second plaintiff Samsonite India Pvt. , Ltd. is a joint venture Company formed by virtue of the agreement dated 7. 11. 1995 between the first plaintiff and the Indian promoters represented by Mr. Ramesh Tainwala, the present Managing Director of the second plaintiff Co. The first and the second plaintiffs have also entered into technical know-how, trade mark patents and trade name agreement dated 7. 11. 1995 whereby the second plaintiff is given a licence to use the trade mark and other trade marks, patents and technical know-how. The second plaintiff pursuant to such an agreement has obtained clearance from the concerned authorities. According to the plaintiffs, the first defendant Vijay Sales is stockist in Connaught Place, New Delhi. The second defendant Blowplast India Ltd. is a Company registered under the Companies Act having registered office at Mumbai. The third defendant V. I. P. Industries Ltd. is a Company having registered office at Nasik, Maharashtra. The first plaintiff has established itself as market leaders and trend setters for manufacturing soft and hard luggage, pullmans, carry alls, shoulder bags, backpacks, brief cases, vanity cases of superior quality, contemporary style, innovative design and distinctive colour combinations, which are sold under various specie names but under the umbrella trademark of SAMSONITE. The first plaintiff is a registered proprietor of the trade mark SAMSONITE in 59 countries. In India, the first plaintiff has registered its trade mark SAMSONITE under class 18 bearing registration Nos. 249728 (SAMSONITE word per se) and 286195 (Samsonite logo ). The plaintiffs claim that the first plaintiff has subsidiaries and licencees in almost all the countries in the world. The sales turnover on global market in 1996 have been 675. 20 million US Dollars. The first plaintiff had advertised on a very large scale and it is claimed:

"the range of goods manufactured and/or marketed by the lstplaintiffsand/ or their licensees under the umbrella trademark SAMSONITE are also featured the world over in the catalogues of leading departmental stores like ROBINSON s in Singapore and HARROD s. SELFRIDCS an JOHN LEWIS in U. K. , PRINTEMPTS in Franch and HERTIE in Germany as well as inflight magazines of many international airlines like HIGHLIFE of British Airways and Priority of Singapore Airlines and several mail order and duty free shopping catalogues. The lst plaintiffs have also widely advertised the range of goods manufactured and/or marketed by the 1st plaintiffs and/or their licensees under the umbrella trademark SAMSONITE in various printed media including newspapers, tabloids and magazines with international circulation like The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, She s, Capital, National Geographic, TIME, Cosmopolitan Khaleej Times and through attention catching T. V. commercials in the U S and Europe. Many of these magazines have a wide cir