Unauthorized use of a trademark and causing confusion in the market constitutes trademark infringement, and the rightful owner is entitled to injunctive relief.

Manmohan Singh, J.

1. By way of this order, I propose to decide the following four pending applications:-

(a) I.A. No. 10720/2012 under Order XXXIX Rule 1 and 2 CPC filed by the plaintiffs;

(b) I.A. No. 19935/2014 under Order XXXIX Rule 4 CPC filed by the defendants for vacation of interim order;

(c) I.A. No. 15400/2012 under Order VII Rule 10 and 11 CPC filed on behalf of the defendants for rejection of plaint;

(d) I.A. No. 40/2013 under Order I Rule 10 CPC filed by the defendants.

2. The plaintiffs have filed the suit for permanent injunction restraining passing off, damages, rendition of accounts and delivery up against the defendants.

3. Brief facts of the case as per the plaint are that the plaintiff No. 1 is a limited Company incorporated under the laws of Switzerland and is the world leader in development, production and marketing of specific scale corrosion inhibitors used in water-steam and heating circuits/steam generators, warm and hot water networks, boilers, turbines, cooling systems etc. The plaintiff No. 1 began its commercial operations in 1986 when the trademark and the name ‘HELAMIN’ was first used in the course of trade.

4. Plaintiff No.2 is the wholly-owned subsidiary and the manufacturing and world export branch of plaintiff No.1 and uses the trademark and trade name HELAMIN under the license from plaintiff No.1. Plaintiff No.2 was founded on 11th May, 1989 and is a limited Company incorporated under the laws of France.

5. Plaintiff No. 1 is the pioneer and inventor of a revolutionary polyamines filming technology to prevent scale and corrosion in water-steam cycle systems (turbines included) as well as in cooling systems. The plaintiffs’ products serve to form a continuous and hydrophobic protective film on metal surfaces, thus acting as a barrier between water and metal to prevent corrosion.

6. It is stated that the plaintiff No.1 has a strong international commercial presence in over 40 countries across the world including India and has a leading share in its specific market segment within the global water treatment chemicals market. The plaintiff No.1’s products are sold through an integrated distribution network supported by the plaintiff’s international distributors in several countries.

7. It is averred that the plaintiffs have been using the trademarks HELAMIN 906 H and HELAMIN BRW 150 H since the year 1993 and the trademark HELAMIN 90 H-TURB since the year 2002. The plaintiff No.1’s trademark HELAMIN is coined from ‘Helvetia’ (the Latin name for Switzerland) and ‘Polyamin’ which denotes a chemical compound comprising of multiple amino groups.

8. The plaintiff No.1 had applied for registration of the trademark HELAMIN in India under application No.1717404 in relation to “chemicals used in industry and chemical products for the protection of metallic surfaces” in classes 1 and 2 respectively, as of 1st August, 2008.

9. It is also averred that as a result of long and continuous use since the year 1986, coupled with extensive sales spanning over a wide geographical area, the trademark/name HELAMIN has acquired tremendous reputation and goodwill amongst the customers and the members of the trade all over the world and has become distinctive of the plaintiffs. The well-known character of the plaintiffs’ trademark/name HELAMIN is reflected from the plaintiffs’ worldwide consolidated sales turnover from 2000 to 2011 which averaged approximately US$10,000,000 per year. The worldwide consolidated advertisement expenses for the plaintiff’s HELAMIN products from 2000-2011 aggregates to approximately US$300,000.

10. It is the case of the plaintiffs against the defendants that in 2001, defendant No. 3 began working with Helamin Technology Holding Group (HTHG) as a technical consultant for their UAE market.

During his course of employment with the plaintiffs, he had access to confidential information as well as end user customer know-how and received technical training pertaining to the working and applications of HE