The court applied the provisions under Order XIII-A of the CPC and the Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2022 to grant a Summary Judgment in a commercial dispute involving trade mark infringement and passing off.

JUDGMENT

Navin Chawla, J.

1. This suit has been filed by the plaintiff inter-alia praying for a decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendants from infringing and/or passing off the plaintiff's registered trade mark `FRAPPUCCINO' and/or using the `FRAPPUCCINO' mark, including the `BROWNIE Chips FRAPPUCCINO' or any other similar trade mark in relation to their goods and services. The plaintiff also prays for damages; rendition of accounts of profits illegally earned by the defendants; and for an order of delivery and handing over of all the impugned goods, menu cards, and all other goods of any nature bearing and/or containing the impugned mark `FRAPPUCCINO' in any manner whatsoever, to the plaintiff for their destruction.

2. Vide order dated 23.08.2019 of this Court, summons in the Suit were issued to the defendants and an ex-parte ad-interim injunction was granted in favour of the plaintiff, restraining the defendants from using `FRAPPUCCINO' mark in any manner on any of the products sold by them.

3. In spite of service of summons, the defendants chose not to appear or file their written statements and were thus proceeded ex-parte on 28.11.2019. The plaintiff was given time to file its list of witnesses and evidence by way of affidavit.

4. On 26.02.2020, a counsel appeared on behalf of the defendants before the learned Joint Registrar (Judicial), and the learned counsels for the parties submitted that the suit is likely to be settled between the parties and prayed for time for the purpose of compromise.

5. The plaintiff thereafter filed an application, being I.A.13114/2022, under Order XIII-A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 as applicable to commercial disputes of a specified value (in short, `CPC'), praying for a Summary Judgment against the defendants. Notice of this application was issued by this Court on 22.08.2022, granting a period of three weeks to the defendants to file their reply. However, the reply to the aforesaid application was not filed by the defendant nor was the counsel for the defendant present in Court on 01.11.2022.

6. It is the case of the plaintiff that the plaintiff is a company organized and existing under the laws of the State of Washington, the United States of America (in short, `United States'). It is a lifestylebrand company. In the year 1971, its predecessor-in-interest opened its first retail store under the name `Starbucks' in Seattle, Washington, United States, offering a variety of coffee, tea and spices. In 1985, the plaintiff-company was incorporated as `STARBUCKS CORPORATION', and in the year 1987, the plaintiff opened its first retail store in locations outside of Seattle, to other locations within the United States as also in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

7. It is further asserted that the plaintiff, under its registered trade mark `FRAPPUCCINO' and the variations thereof, offers its widely popular hand-crafted blended cold beverages throughout the world. These are also sold in bottled form in many countries in a variety of flavours.

8. The plaintiff has given details of the registration of its `FRAPPUCCINO' mark in paragraph 7 of the plaint and filed documents in support of this claim.

9. It is further asserted that the plaintiff uses its trade mark `FRAPPUCCINO' in 30,626 `Starbucks' stores in 80 countries and territories, as well as a bottled-coffee beverage that is distributed to multiple third-party grocery, retail and wholesale stores globally. The plaintiff develops specific flavors for various countries in which beverages under the `FRAPPUCCINO' mark are available in the `Starbucks' stores. Some flavors are developed for short-term promotions, while some are developed for long-term menu use, such as beverages bearing the mark `FRAPPUCCINO' and in flavours including but not limited to `Banana Java Chip', `Mango-Azuki', `Blackberry Green Tea' in the Philippines, Switzerland, and Australia.

10. The plaintiff has also listed out the details of domain n