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2023 Supreme(Del) 446
IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Amit Bansal, J.
Pandrol Limited & Anr. - Plaintiffs
Versus
Patil Rail Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. - Defendants
CS(COMM) 602 of 2022
Decided On : 13-03-2023
For the Plaintiff :Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Archana Sahadeva, Ms. Anjuri Saxena and Mr. Yashraj Samant, Advocates.
For the Defendant :Mr. Jayant Mehta, Mr. Donthi Reddy, Dr. Venkat Reddy, Sr. Advocates with Mr. Gagan Gupta, Advocate.
Original artistic work continues to enjoy full copyright protection even if used for industrial production. Copyright protection is not contingent on registration under the Designs Act.
Headnote:
Copyright Infringement - Interim Injunction - Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 - Copyright Act, 1957 - Designs Act, 2000
Fact of the Case:
The plaintiffs, industry leaders in rail fastenings, filed a suit against the defendants for infringing their copyrighted works and registered trademark 'PANDROL' by copying their drawings and submitting them to a railway tender. The defendants claimed that the drawings were in the public domain and not subject to copyright protection.
Finding of the Court:
The court found that the defendants had copied the plaintiffs' drawings and trademark, and their justifications were not valid. The court granted an interim injunction in favor of the plaintiffs and imposed a cost of Rs.1,00,000 on the defendants.
Issues: Copyright infringement, validity of copyright in the drawings, waiver of copyright, necessity of impleading Ministry of Railways
Ratio Decidendi: The original drawings of the plaintiffs, being 'artistic work' under the Copyright Act, continued to enjoy full copyright protection even if used for industrial production. The defendants' copying of the drawings and trademark was unjustified and led to a competitive advantage.
Final Decision: The application filed by the plaintiffs for interim injunction was allowed, and the defendants were burdened with costs. The observations made were only for the purposes of adjudication of the application and would have no bearing on the final outcome of the suit.
JUDGMENT :
I.A. 14099/2022 (O-XXXIX R-1 & 2 of the CPC)
1. By way of the present judgment, I shall decide the application filed on behalf of the plaintiffs under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) for grant of interim injunction.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUIT
2. Summons in the suit was issued on 2nd September, 2022, when an ad interim injunction was granted in favour of the plaintiffs, restraining the defendants from infringing the copyrighted works and the registered trademark ‘PANDROL’ of the plaintiffs as well as passing off their products as those of the plaintiffs under the ‘PANDROL’ mark. The relevant portion of the injunction order is set out as under:
“32. Accordingly, Defendants, their directors, executives, partners, proprietors, principal officers, assignees, family members and anyone acting for and on their behalf are restrained from:
a. directly or indirectly copying, reproducing, storing, using, publishing, advertising Pandrol’s Copyrighted Work, i.e. drawing numbers 13145, 13146, 14613, 14614, 5720, 8605, 8604, 12683, 12740, 2759, 12717, 12791, 10108, 21166, in any manner that may result in infringement of the Plaintiff ‘s copyright subsisting in the said drawings;
b. using, applying, manufacturing and selling, offering for sale, advertising or promoting the unauthorized usage of the PANDROL trade mark, or any other mark which is either identical to or deceptively similar to the Plaintiff ‘s registered trade mark ‘PANDROL’ causing infringement of the registered trade mark and passing off in respect of any products whatsoever.”
3. A Local Commissioner was also appointed by the Court to visit the premises of the defendant no.1 in Hyderabad, to, inter alia, take into custody any information/data/drawings belonging to the plaintiffs and in the possession of the defendants. Report dated 15th September, 2022 of the Local Commissioner is on record.
4. Thereafter, pleadings in the suit and the present application have been completed. Submissions in the present application were heard on 21st February, 2023 and judgment was reserved. Both sides have filed a brief note of their submissions.
CASE SET UP IN THE PLAINT
5. The case set up in the plaint is as under:
5.1. Plaintiff no.1 is the industry leader in rail fastenings and track elasticity solutions headquartered in the United Kingdom. The plaintiff no.2 is a joint venture between the plaintiff no.1 and Rahee Industries Ltd., a leading integrated railroad company.
5.2. The defendant no.1 is a company in the business of dealing in railway track engineering. Defendants no.2 to 5 are employees of the defendant no.1.
5.3. The mark ‘PANDROL’ of the plaintiffs was adopted by the predecessor-in-interest of the plaintiff no.1 in 1964 and subsequently, also adopted as the trade/corporate name of the plaintiff no.1. The plaintiff no.1 holds registrations dating as far back as 1964 for its trademark ‘PANDROL’ in various classes, details of which are provided in paragraph 40 of the plaint. The plaintiff no.1 is the registered proprietor of the ‘PANDROL’ trademark in India.
5.4. The plaintiffs have designed, developed and created detailed drawings for their ‘Pandrol Double Resilient Baseplate Assembly System’ [hereinafter ‘DBRAS’], which is a railway track fastening system used in metro rails.
5.5. The Ministry of Railways, vide notification dated 21st May, 2010 had notified the ‘Performance Criteria of Fastening Systems for Ballastless Track’ [hereinafter ‘Performance Criteria’], which stipulated the various parameters and standards applicable to ‘fastening systems for ballastless track’ of metro rails. On being found compliant with the parameters and standards prescribed under the Performance Criteria, the plaintiffs obtained approval for their drawings from the Ministry of Railways vide letter dated 7th October, 2011.
5.6. The DBRAS drawings are the copyrighted work of the plaintiff no.1, being the original artistic work designed, developed and created by the plaintif
