JUDGMENT

Manmohan, J. (Oral)

I.A. 11355/2018

1. Present suit has been filed for permanent injunction restraining infringement of trademark, passing off, rendition of accounts, damages and delivery up. The prayers sought in the present injunction application are as under:

(a) Restrain the defendants, their employees, servants, agents and all others in active concert or participation with them from manufacturing/selling/advertising/importing or in any other way dealing in goods and providing services under the mark IKAH or any other mark which amounts to an infringement of the IKEA trademarks of the plaintiff as listed in paragraph 13 of the plaint;

(b) Restrain the defendants, their employees, servants, agents and all others in active concert or participation with them from manufacturing/selling/advertising/importing or in any other way dealing in goods and providing services under the mark IKAH or any other mark which amounts to passing off the defendants' products and services as that of the plaintiff;

(c) Direct the Chief Commissioner of Customs to issue an appropriate alert to all ports to ensure that consignments containing the impugned products of the defendants are not cleared;

(d) Direct the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to suspend the domain www.ikah.in during the pendency of the present suit.

(e) That the above orders may be passed ex pare.

2. Ms. Shwetasree Majumder, learned counsel for the plaintiff, states that the plaintiff is engaged in the business of providing a wide range of well designed, functional and affordable home furnishing products and accessories, bathroom and kitchen fittings, home and office furnishing products, stationery including paper and paper articles, tools and implements under the trade mark IKEA. In the plaint it is averred that the plaintiff is the proprietor of the trademark IKEA which is being used by the plaintiff since 1943 and in India since 1994.

3. Learned counsel for the plaintiff states that the trademark IKEA is an invented mark derived from the first letters of the name and surname of the plaintiff's founder Ingvar Kamprad as also the first letters of the farm and the village where he grew up i.e. Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd.

4. Learned counsel for the plaintiff further states that the plaintiff is the registered proprietor of the word IKEA in several classes in India including Classes 7, 11, 21, 35 and 37 which are the Classes in which the defendants' activities fall. She states that the mark IKEA also forms an essential and integral part of the domain names used by the plaintiff i.e. www.ikea.com and www.ikea.in.

5. Ms. Shwetasree Majumder points out that the plaintiff group is the first major single brand retailer to be given FDI approval to set up retail operations in India. She contends that the plaintiff group has regularly and continuously been promoting its trademark IKEA and goods and services thereunder through extensive advertisement, publicity, promotion and marketing and has been spending enormous amounts of money, efforts and time for the said purpose.

6. Learned counsel for the plaintiff states that in July, 2018, the representative of the plaintiff came across the defendant no.2 company which is engaged in the business of selling home appliances under the mark IKAH. She states that the defendants are advertising and promoting their infringing products under the trademark IKAH on their website www.ikah.in which was owned initially by an entity, Porche Products Private Limited which has been struck off from the Register of Companies.

7. It is the plaintiff's case that the defendants' mark IKAH is phonetically, structurally and conceptually similar to plaintiff's registered trade mark IKEA and is being used in relation to identical goods to encash upon the plaintiff's goodwill and international reputation. She states that the defendants' mala fides and deliberate attempt to deceive current and potential customers is additionally apparent from