IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE S.MURALIDHAR
ARUN COLOUR CHEM & ORS. ..... Plaintiff
versus
MITHUMAL ESSANCE MART & ANR ..... Defendant
CS(OS) 375/2005
Decided on : 14.09.2009
(B) Civil Procedure Code, 1908—Order 39 Rules 1 and 2—Trademarks Act, 1999—Section 124—Copyright Act Sections 50 and 62—Permanent injunction seeking adjournment of rectification proceeding—Order of stay can be passed even before disposal of suit at any interlocutory stage—Proceedings stayed. [Paras 16 to 19]
1. This suit is filed by Arun Colour Chem, i.e. the Plaintiff No. 1 and Arun Colourchem Private Limited, i.e. the Plaintiff No. 2. The plaint as originally filed sought a permanent injunction to restrain the Defendants from using on their products any mark identical or similar to the Plaintiffs mark and label that would amount to passing off of the Plaintiffs registered trademark SUN and the SUN BRAND Label Mark. It has sought to restrain the defendants from infringing the Plaintiffs copyright in the SUN BRAND Label. Other prayers included an order for rendition of accounts and an order for damages. On 21st August, 2007, this Court allowed the I.A. No. 9498/2007 under Order 6 Rule 17 CPC permitting the Plaintiffs to amend the plaint on the basis of a registration certificate for the word mark SUN having been granted to Plaintiff no. 2 by the Trade Mark Registry on 3rd February, 2007. Consequent upon the amendment being allowed, the amended plaint was taken on record. The amended prayer in para 19 seeks the relief of permanent injunction against the Defendants with respect to the infringement of the trade mark SUN in class 30 under No. 842504.
2. Plaintiff No. 1, Arun Colour Chem, is a partnership firm established in the trade of manufacture and sale of inter alia food colours and flavours in the year 2003. It carries on its business in Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi. Plaintiff No. 2, Arun Colourchem Private Limited, is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 in Haryana. This suit is instituted through Mr. Vam Dev Bhardwaj who is a partner in Plaintiff No. 1 and the Managing Director of Plaintiff No. 2.
3. The Plaintiff No. 1 claims to be the proprietor of the trademark SUN and the composite SUN BRAND Label Mark in respect of food colour preparations. The Plaintiffs state that their predecessor in right, title and interest, Arun Chemical Industries adopted the inherently distinctive composite SUN BRAND Label Mark in the year 1973 in respect of food colour preparations which it used till the year 1997 when the Plaintiff No. 2 acquired and took over its running business. Thereafter, the Plaintiff No. 2 extensively and continuously used and promoted the said composite trademark till 2003 when the Plaintiff No. 1 acquired the trademarks SUN and the composite SUN BRAND Label Mark along with the subsisting goodwill and reputation from the Plaintiff No. 2. The Plaintiffs claim to have extensively and continuously used the said Label Mark for the last three decades. 4. It is stated that due to an inadvertent error, the Plaintiff was unable to renew registration of the SUN BRAND Label Mark. As already noticed, during the pendency of the suit, the Plaintiff obtained the registration for the word mark „SUN? on 3rd February 2007.
5. The Defendant No. 2, Jay Industries is a partnership firm having its registered office at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It is engaged in the manufacture and trade of food colours since 1999 and also manufactures blended colours. The Defendant No. 1, Mithumal Essance Mart is located at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The Plaintiffs state that in the month of February 2004, they came across SUN BRAND food colour preparations being manufactured by the Defendant No. 2 and marketed by Defendant No. 1. Ex. DW- 1/1 is the copy of the registration certificate of the trademark „Sun Brand? granted in favour of the Defendant No. 1 and Ex. DW 1/X1 is a Journal notification in respect thereof. DW - 1/2 is the copy of registration certificate of copyright for the title “SUN BRAND” in favour of the Defendant No. 1. The allegation by the Plaintiff is that the label used by Defendant No. 2 is a virtual copy of the Plaintiffs label in every minute detail.
6. This court passed an order on 21st March 2005 granting an ad interim ex-parte injunction. Later after pleadings were complete, issues were framed on 21st January 2006. A preliminary issue was whether this Court has territorial jurisdiction to try the pres
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