JUDGMENT

T.S. Thakur, J. This appeal arises out of an ex parte ad interim order of injunction dated 17th October, 2006 passed by learned single Judge on the original side of this Court whereby the appellant-company has been restrained from using the trade name and/or trademark 'JIVA' or any other identical, deceptively similar or confusing trade name in relation to any of its goods or services and from manufacturing, producing or rendering and offering for sale and/or advertising, marketing any goods or services under the trade name and/or trademark 'JIVA'.

2. The factual matrix leading to the institution of the suit in the present appeal may in nutshell be stated as under:

3. Plaintiff No. 1/respondent herein is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 while plaintiff No. 2/respondent herein is a company incorporated under the Companies Act. Plaintiff No. 3/respondent herein is one of the members of the first plaintiff society and also its President. He also claims to be a shareholder in the Second plaintiff company. The plaintiffs claim to be engaged in diverse activities in the fields of education, culture, religion, spiritual as also in Ayurveda. They also claim to be engaged in manufacturing ayurvedic health care goods, products and providing services in that discipline. In support of their claim, they place reliance upon various pamphlets, publicity material, catalogues, prospectus and literature.

4. The case of the plaintiff is that Plaintiff No. 1 society was registered in the year 1992 inter alia to run "Ayurveda and Nature Care Centre" that came to be known as Jiva Institute. A Pharmacy in the name and style of Jiva Ayurvedic Pharmacy was also started in partnership by Dr. Pratap Singh Chauhan, which some time later took plaintiff No. 3 Rishi Paul Chauhan as a partner in terms of a partnership deed dated 20th June, 2000. The plaintiffs further claim that their other associate entities comprising the Jiva Group included Jiva Research Institute, Jiva Institute of Vedic Studies, Jiva USA Inc, Jiva International, LLC. The plaintiffs allege that Jiva is an integral and prominent part of the names of all the constituent members of the Jiva Group including the plaintiffs and that the word 'JIVA' is their trade name/mark in relation to not only their names and identity but also in relation to their goods products, services and activities. The plaintiffs allege that the trade name and mark 'JIVA' is a well-known trade name and mark associated entirely with the constituents of the plaintiff group of concerns.

5. The defendant company had started using the said trade name and mark including for the ayurvedic therapies, products goods and services and for Jiva SPAs established in their hotels. The plaintiffs' case was that the defendant company is neither entitled to the adoption, use of the said trade name or mark nor to the registration thereof under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 not only because the marks of the plaintiff and defendant No. 1 are identical but even the goods, products and services and activities are identical and at any rate cognate in nature and content. It was further alleged that the trade channels and class of customers of the plaintiffs and the defendants company too were identical thereby giving rise to a real likelihood of an impression being created among the members of the public that there was some kind of association or nexus between the two. The adoption and use of an identical and/or similar trade name and/or trade mark by the defendant company was, according to the plaintiff, intended to take unfair advantage of the distinctive character and reputation of the plaintiffs in the field of ayurveda products and services which the plaintiffs were offering. The plaintiffs further allege that they were the prior users of the mark/name JIVA and were, therefore, entitled to protection against its use by the defendant company. The adoption of the trade name JIVA by the defendant