SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Audio Icon Pause Audio Icon
judgment-img

2012 Supreme(Guj) 301

2012 (3) GLH 110
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
J.C. UPADHYAYA, J.

SUN PHARMACEUTICALS INDUSTRIES LTD - Appellant(s)
Versus
M/S WEST COAST PHARMACEUTICALS WORKS LTD & 1 - Respondent(s)
APPEAL FROM ORDER No. 29 of 2012 With CIVIL APPLICATION No. 952 of 2012
In APPEAL FROM ORDER No. 29 of 2012
Decided on : 20/06/2012

Advocates Appeared:
MR HARSHIT STOLIA with MR TEJAS S TRIVEDI for Appellant(s) : 1,
MR SACHIN D VASAVADA for Respondent(s): 1 - 2.
MR SAMRAT N MEHTA for Respondent(s): 1 - 2.
RULE SERVED BY DS for Respondent(s): 2,
J.C.UPADHYAYA

Headnote:

Trade Marks Act, 1999 - Section 135 - Challenge in this Appeal From Order is to order passed by Ld. Chamber Judge in Notice of Motion by impugned order dismissed temporary injunction application filed by appellant - original plaintiff and further ordered that ad-interim relief earlier granted in said matter stood vacated forthwith - Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with impugned order passed by trial Court, original plaintiff preferred this appeal - Plaintiff filed the above referred Suit against defendants seeking decree for permanent injunction as well as decree for damages directing defendants to give true and correct account of manufacturing and sale of product under trademark "ACICAL" to trial Court and after verifying details of account and amount of profit earned by defendants by sale of said product - Order defendants to pay amount of profit earned by them with 18% interest from date of institution of suit till date of realization - Held, for temporary order in an action in passing off, plaintiff need not in general show strong prima-facie case and even if chance of success at trial is only 20 per cent, interim relief required to be granted - Ultimately temporary injunction order was granted in favour of appellant - plaintiff - On hand are completely different and in light of entire above discussion, there is nothing that order passed by trial Court can be labeled as arbitrary, perverse or capricious so that interference in tsaid order by this Court is warranted - Moreover submission advanced on behalf of appellant - plaintiff that till date why defendants not apply for registration is a material question, which should have been considered by the trial Court, but the trial Court failed to consider it, if seen in its proper perspective, then such submission is not required to be undergone at this stage on its merits for the simple reason that even as submitted on behalf of the appellant - plaintiff, instant suit is filed to challenge passing off action wherein factor of registration or no registration is immaterial - Secondly full fledged evidence yet to be recorded and ultimately on basis of evidence on record trial Court may come to any just conclusion - Appeal lacks merits - Appeal dismissed

JUDGMENT

The challenge in this Appeal From order is to the order dated 23/1/2012 passed by the Ld. Chamber Judge, City Civil Court, Ahmedabad, in Notice of Motion Exhs.6/7 and 16 in Civil Suit No. 2800/2011. The Ld. City Civil Judge [hereinafter referred to as 'the trial Court'] by impugned order dated 23/1/2012 dismissed the temporary injunction application filed by the appellant - original plaintiff and further ordered that the ad-interim relief earlier granted in the said matter stood vacated forthwith. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned order passed by the trial Court, the original plaintiff preferred this appeal. Therefore, the appellant is original plaintiff and the respondents are original defendants and for the sake of convenience, the appellant and the respondents shall be hereinafter referred to as 'the plaintiff' and 'the defendants' in this judgment.

2. The plaintiff filed the above referred suit against the defendants seeking decree for permanent injunction as well as the decree for damages directing the defendants to give true and correct account of manufacturing and sale of the product under the trademark “ACICAL” to the trial Court and after verifying the details of account and the amount of profit earned by the defendants by sale of said product, order the defendants to pay the amount of profit earned by them with 18% interest from the date of the institution of the suit till the date of realization.

3. In the said suit, the plaintiff filed an application seeking temporary injunction order against the defendants to restrain the defendants, their agents, dealers, distributors, etc., from manufacturing and marketing their medicinal product under the trademark “ACICAL” and/or any other mark, which may be identical and/or similar to the trademark “ACUCAL” of the plaintiff and thereby to restrain the defendants from committing passing off the goods sold under the trademark “ACICAL”, till the pendency and final disposal of the suit. It appears that initially the trial Court granted ex-parte ad-interim injunction order, but after considering the submissions advanced on behalf of both the sides and considering relevant materials placed before it, the trial Court by virtue of the impugned order dated 23/1/2012 dismissed said application of the plaintiff and vacated the ad-interim injunction order earlier granted.

4. The case of the plaintiff, in nutshell, is that the plaintiff is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical medicinal preparations. The plaintiff company came into existence in 1993. The plaintiff has invented, coined and adopted various trademarks and labels for the medicinal preparations manufactured by it. The plaintiff manufactured a medicinal preparation under the trade name “ACUCAL” in tablet form which contains combination of Calcium Citrate and Vitamin D3, Magnesium Hydroxide since the year 2001. It is the case of the plaintiff that word “ACUCAL” had been coined/adopted from the words 'accuracy' and 'calcium'. It is the case of the plaintiff that plaintiff applied for registration of trademark 'ACUCAL' on 14/3/2001 and the same is pending for registration. The said application was advertised in the Trademark Journal on 4/10/2003. It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendants have not opposed the said advertisement.

4.1. It is the case of the plaintiff that considering the year-wise sales figures, it would make clear that the product sold under the trademark “ACUCAL” of the plaintiff has acquired very good reputation and goodwill and high demand in the market. In para.7 in the plaint, the plaintiff has given details of promotional expenses of “ACUCAL” and year-wise sales figures of “ACUCAL” medicinal preparation.

4.2. It is the case of the plaintiff that it came to know very recently that the defendants are manufacturing and marketing the product under the trade name “ACICAL” which is identic











































Click Here to Read the rest of this document

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
logo-black

An indispensable Tool for Legal Professionals, Endorsed by Various High Court and Judicial Officers

Please visit our Training & Support
Center or Contact Us for assistance

qr

Scan Me!

India’s Legal research and Law Firm App, Download now!

For Daily Legal Updates, Join us on :

whatsapp-icon Back to top