RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J.

IA No. 7259/2016 (of the plaintiffs under Order XXXIX Rules 1&2 CPC)

1. The two plaintiffs viz. (a) H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB, Sweden and (b) H&M Hennes & Mauritz Retail Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi have sued the defendants no. 1 to 4 viz. (i) HM Mega brands Pvt. Ltd. (ii) Mr. Arif Merchant, (iii) Mr. Hamza Arif Merchant and (iv) Mr. Hashim Arif Merchant, inter-alia for injunction restraining passing off/infringement of trade mark HM of the plaintiffs, by use of the trade mark HM MEGA BRANDS and for ancillary reliefs.

2. The suit along with the application for interim relief came up before this Court first on 2nd June, 2016 when the defendants being on caveat appeared and the hearing of the application for interim relief was deferred to the after notice stage. Pleadings were completed and the senior counsel for the plaintiffs and the senior counsel for the defendants were heard on 22nd August, 2016 and 23rd August, 2016 and order reserved.

3. It is the case of the plaintiffs (i) that plaintiff no. 1 H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB, Sweden is the proprietor of the trade marks H&M/and the plaintiff no. 2 H&M Hennes & Mauritz Retial Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi is a subsidiary of plaintiff no. 1 in India and carries on business under the trade/service mark/name H&M/on behalf of the plaintiff no. 1; (ii) that plaintiff nos. 1 & 2 form part of the H&M Group of companies which are designers/ marketers/sellers of wide and varied fashionable clothing collection and ancillary products/services for women, men, teenagers and children; (iii) that plaintiff no. 1 has more than 4000 stores/outlets in 61 markets worldwide and provides goods through online shopping in 21 countries; (iv) that plaintiff no. 1 adopted the trade mark/name H&M in early 1970 and secured earliest registration for the mark in the year 1985 in the United Kingdom; (v) that the defendant no. 1 HM Mega brands Pvt. Ltd. of which defendants no. 2 to 4 are officers/Directors are engaged in the business of marketing, supplying, selling of garments and ancillary products under the mark/name HM/since the year 2011 and applied for registration thereof on 11th April, 2014; (vi) that a comparative analysis of the plaintiffs and defendants marks/artworks is as under:-

S. No.	Plaintiffs	Defendants
1.	H&M (Word mark) Adoption: 1972 United Kingdom: August 01, 1985 India: October 21, 2005	HM (Word mark) Alleged adoption: 2011 Application filed on April 11, 2014

(vii) that the logo/of the plaintiffs is an artwork within the definition of Copyright Act, 1957 and the use of the mark/logo by the defendants is in violation of the plaintiffs copyright as well; (viii) that in India, the trade mark/of the plaintiffs is registered under No. 1393619 in Classes 25 and 35 since October, 2005; (ix) that apart from being a well known trade mark/forms a prominent part of the corporate name of the plaintiffs; (x) that plaintiffs have also registered domain names comprising the mark/name HM/ HM.com which was registered in the year 1998; (xi) that the website www.hm.com contains information on the plaintiffs and their business and is used/accessed extensively by customers all over the world; (xii) that information/news pertaining to plaintiffs and the mark/name H&M is readily available and frequently accessed through search engines such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com and www.msn.com; (xiii) that plaintiffs have been manufacturing clothes/garments bearing the trade/service mark/name H&M/for the purpose of export since 1972; (xiv) that plaintiff no. 2 was incorporated on 16th December, 2013 to formally and firmly establish plaintiff no. 1s presence in India; (xv) that plaintiff no. 2 foray into the Indian market as a retailer was in the year October, 2015 when its first store was launched in a very prominen