JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: The suit is filed under Order VII Rule 1 CPC and Order IV Rule 1 of O.S. Rules R/W Sections 27, 28, 29,134, and 135 of the Trademarks Act,1999 praying for a permanent injunction restraining the Defendant, by itself, its directors, men, servants, agents, representatives or anyone claiming through or under them from in any manner infringing the Plaintiff's registered trademark Jodi365 under No.1971072 in Class 99 and other registered trademarks by using a deceptively similar trademark Jodii or any other trademark deceptively similar to the Plaintiff's registered trademark or in any other manner whatsoever; (b) a permanent injunction restraining the Defendant, by itself, its directors, men, servants, agents, representatives or anyone claiming through or under them from in any manner passing off and/or enabling others to pass off the Defendant's services of software/website/mobile applications or any other Internet-related services or offline matchmaking services under the trademark Jodii as and for the Plaintiff's services by using, offering for sale, displaying, printing, advertising their services with a trademark Jodii or any other trademark identical or deceptively similar with that of the Plaintiff's Jodi365 or in any other manner whatsoever; (c) the Defendant be ordered to surrender to Plaintiff for destruction of all materials, brochures, screen prints, packing materials, advertising materials, and other materials, including on the Internet, bearing the trademark Jodii or any mark deceptively similar to Plaintiff's trademark Jodi 365; (d) damages to the tune of Rs.1,00,00,000/- and for costs of the suit.)

1. The suit was filed as a rolled-up action for injunctive relief in respect of alleged trademark infringement and passing off. Ancillary and consequential remedies of surrender of infringing materials for destruction and damages of Rs.1,00,00,000/- were also claimed.

2. The Plaintiff stated the following. It was incorporated in March 2010, as a fully owned subsidiary of FreeElective LLC, to provide a range of services such as matchmaking and matrimonial services. In course of business, the Plaintiff adopted the trademarks “Jodi365” and “Peepul365” in the year 2009 for its flagship matchmaking platform and complementary wedding planning market network, respectively. Upon adopting the trademark Jodi365, a single multi-class application under class 99 for registration thereof under Classes 35, 38, 41 was submitted. Class 35 covers the services of advertising, computer databases, data search in computer files, etc.; Class 38 covers telecommunications, communications by computer terminals, computer aided transmission of messages and images, etc.; and Class 41 covers education, providing of training and cultural activities, entertainment, education information, gaming, and publication of texts, etc. The registration was granted with effect from 26.05.2010 and is valid and subsisting up to 26.05.2030 after having been renewed for 10 years with effect from 26.05.2020. The device mark “Jodi365” has been used from the year 2009 honestly, openly and continuously. In the said device mark, the word “Jodi” is the distinguishing, prominent and essential feature. The Plaintiff's total revenue for the year ended March 2020 was Rs.31,28,190/-, as per the audited financial statement, and Rs.16,07,231/- for the year ended 31.03.2021 as per the provisional financial statement. It incurred advertising expenditure of about Rs.30 lakhs since December 2019 for advertising on Facebook. It launched a mobile application (app) version of “Jodi365”, which is available on the Google Play Store since January 2020, and more than 50,000 users had downloaded the said app. By relying upon press and media coverage in relation thereto, the Plaintiff further stated that its trademark has acquired considerable reputation and goodwill in the market.

3. In or about October 2021, the Plaintiff stated that it came to know that the Defendant had lau