VALMIKI J. MEHTA, J.

1. The plaintiff company Christian Louboutin SAS has filed this suit seeking reliefs of injunction against the infringement of its trademark, passing off, damages etc. Plaintiff has sought the reliefs as prayed for in the suit, vide para 54 (a) of the plaint, by pleading exclusive ownership of its registered trademarks ‘RED SOLE’ under the registration nos.1922048, 2341890 and 2341891 granted by the Registrar of Trademarks. The registration granted, and with respect to are claimed in the suit, being ‘RED SOLE’ is not a wordmark but it is literally a red colour shade applied to the soles of the ladies footwear manufactured by the plaintiff.

2. The relevant registrations with respect to which plaintiff claims exclusive ownership are contained in para 20 of the plaint and this para is scanned below :-

REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE PLAINTIFF

20. A part from the rights vested with the Plaintiff in common law, the Plaintiff also has statutory rights over several of its trademarks in India, including the ‘RED SOLE’ trademark, A list of the Plaintiff’s registrations for its various Christian Louboutin marks is provided below:

Trademark	Reg. No.	Date	Classes
	1922048	15.02.2010	25
	2341890	01.06.2012	03
	2341891	01.06.2012	14
Christian louboutin	1644051	22.01.2008	18 & 25
	1839047	13.07.2009	18& 25
	2341895	01.06.2012	03
	2341896	01.06.2012	14
	1931553	05.03.2010	25

3. The plaintiff pleads that the defendants are carrying on its business at two outlets located at Mumbai. The defendant no.3/entity M/s Veronica is owned by the defendant nos.1 and 2. Since the defendants are selling shoes by colouring red the soles of their shoes, therefore it is the case of the plaintiff that there results infringement of the registered trademarks of the plaintiff being red colour applied to the soles of the ladies footwear as stated in paras 20 and 21 of the plaint read with para 54(a) prayer clause. Plaintiff also pleads that defendants are passing off their footwear as that of the plaintiff because of use of the red colour in the soles of the ladies footwear sold by the defendants and that there is passing off, notwithstanding that the defendants trademark for its shoes is a wordmark VERONICA. These aspects with respect to the infringement by the defendants and comparison to the trademarks of the plaintiff, as also the aspect of passing off is stated by the plaintiff in paras 35(iv) & 35(v) of the plaint, and which paras read as under:-

“(iv) A visit to the Defendant No. 3's store at Bandra West on April 18, 2018 rev3ealed that the said outlet had in stock around 40-50 pairs of footwear/ladies' shoes bearing the Plaintiff's well-known ‘RED SOLE’ trademark. The investigator on the said visit was able to purchase a sample of infringing ‘RED SOLE’ shoes from the said outlet of the Defendant No. 3 for Rs. 800/- against a cash memo and also procure a business card from the said shop. The sample product purchased from the said outlet of the Defendant No. 3. by the Investigator (shown in the below table) bear the Plaintiff’s ‘RED SOLE’

Outlet from which the sample was purchased	Photographs of the infringing ‘red sole’ shoes purchased by the Investigator	Plaintiff’s Registered Trademark being infringed
VERONICA (Bandra West

(v) Further, the investigator also visited the premises of the second outlet of the Defendant no.3 located at Vile Parle West, on April 18, 2018. Upon this visit the said outlet was found to have on display a stock of around 40-50 pairs of footwear/ladies” shoes bearing the Plaintiff’s well-known ‘RED SOLE’ trademark. The investigator was able to purchase a sample of infringing ‘RED SOLE’ shoes from the said outlet of the Defendant No.3 for Rs. 500/- against a cash memo and was also able to proc