JUDGMENT :

N. SESHASAYEE, J.

Prayer : Original Side Appeal filed under Order 36 Rule 9 of Original Side Rules r/w. Section 15 of Letters Patent, against the order and decretal order dated 14.03.2018 passed in Application No.8007 of 2017 in C.S.No.405 of 2014 on the file of Commercial Division of the High Court of Madras.

1.1 An action for passing off and other allied reliefs, a suit was instituted by the appellant in C.S.405 of 2014. The appellant is an Italian company, which is involved in the manufacture and sale of brass ball valves and other kinds of valves and fittings. It was marketing its products under the trademark ‘Rubeinetterie Bresciane” with a design mark enclosing within it the letters ‘R’ and ‘B’. Since 2005, the respondent has been a major associate of the appellant and has been marketing its products in India. Alleging that the respondent began selling spurious and counterfeit goods, and passing them off as appellant’s product, the latter terminated the distributorship of the respondent with it, and brought an action for passing off.

1.2. The appellant’s suit met with a counter challenge when the respondent laid C.S.891 of 2015 inter alia for declaration that the termi