Trademark owners can prevent unauthorized sales of altered goods bearing their marks, affirming the right to trade mark integrity and consumer protection.

JUDGMENT

1. The present suit has been filed by the plaintiff seeking inter alia a decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendant, its proprietor, partners, representatives and/or others acting for and on its behalf from selling, offering for sale, advertising or otherwise dealing in infringing goods which bear the plaintiff's registered trade marks "WESTERN DIGITAL", and/or "WD" (hereinafter referred to as "Western Digital trade marks")

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

2. It is the case of the plaintiff that the plaintiff-company was founded in April 1970 as `General Digital', and in July 1971, it adopted its current name and trade mark "WESTERN DIGITAL" as part of its corporate name. The plaintiff, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation, is one of the largest computer hard-disk drive manufacturers in the world.

3. The plaintiff is a world-renowned manufacturer and marketer of inter alia storage devices, media players, routers/switches/bridges, comprising of Original Equipment Manufacturer (in short, `OEM')/system manufacturer, desktop, and enterprise, solid state drives (in short `SSDs'), software and mobile applications which are marketed and sold under the plaintiff's "Western Digital trade marks".

4. "WESTERN DIGITAL" is the most essential feature of the plaintiff's corporate name, and is also used as a trade mark by the plaintiff-company, either as a standalone or as a conjunctive mark. The plaintiff's "WD" logo, is which is its corporate logo, is present on all the labels and packaging of their goods.

5. The plaintiff has applied for and is the registered proprietor of the "Western Digital trade marks" in India. The details of trade mark registrations granted in favour of the plaintiff in Class 5 under the provisions of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") are as follows:

Trade Mark	Number	Class	Date	Goods
WESTERN DIGITAL	1345682	9	March 18, 2005	COMPUTER PRODUCTS, NAMELY, DISK DRIVES
WD	1349235	9	April 6, 2005	COMPUTER PRODUCTS, INCLUDING, HARD DRIVES
	1325732	9	December 14, 2004	COMPUTER PRODUCTS, NAMELY HARD DRIVES

6. The plaintiff also owns and maintains several websites whose domain names contain "WESTERN DIGITAL" or "WD" and are used for marketing and selling goods bearing the "Western Digital trade marks", the details whereof are given in paragraph 12 of the plaint.

7. The plaintiff submits that the Western Digital trade marks have been registered in many countries such as Australia, China, Singapore, Canada, the European Union, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates, to name a few. The plaintiff has provided details of the revenue earned by the plaintiff-company, up until the filing of the present suit, in paragraph 15 of the plaint.

8. The plaintiff further states that it has invested large sums of money in advertising and promoting the goods bearing the "Western Digital trade marks" world-wide as well as in India. Since the year 2005, the plaintiff has spent more than Rs.20 Crore to build the "WESTERN DIGITAL" and "WD" brands in India.

9. The plaintiff further asserts that they have been extensively advertised in all major international magazines including `Wired', `Rolling Stone', `Fast Company', `PC Adviser', `PC Pro', `Computer Shopper, and `The Gadget Show Magazine', to name only a few. All these magazines are widely circulated and re