HIGH COURT OF DELHI
BRIGHT LIFECARE PVT. LTD. – Appellant
Versus
VINI COSMETICS PVT. LTD. & ANR. – Respondent
CS(COMM)-144/2022
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Reserved on: 13th May, 2022
Date of decision: 7th July, 2022
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CS(COMM) 144/2022 & I.A. 3585/2022
BRIGHT LIFECARE PVT. LTD.
..... Plaintiff
Through:
Mr. Vikas Khera, Mr. Ved Prakash,
Ms.
Vishal
Sharan,
Advocates
(M:7834897828)
versus
VINI COSMETICS PVT. LTD. & ANR.
..... Defendants
Through:
Mr. Chander Lall, Sr. Advocate with
Mr. Anish Chawla, Ms. Ananya
Chugh Mr. Bhav Arora, Advocates
for D-1 (M:9953541910)
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
JUDGMENT
Prathiba M. Singh, J.
1. The question before the Court in the present matter is- can an
advertising campaign and its various elements be protected under
intellectual property law? If so, in what manner?
2. The Plaintiff- Bright Lifecare Pvt. Ltd. is a company engaged in the
business of manufacturing and trading of health supplements, nutraceuticals
and food products. It has filed the present suit claiming infringement of its
various rights under the laws of copyright, trademarks, passing off, etc. One
of the products of the Plaintiff is a protein supplement which is sold in a
series of products under the MuscleBlaze (MB) trademark. Defendant No.1
is a company involved in the business of manufacturing and merchandising
of pharmaceuticals, ayurvedic and cosmetic products under the house mark
This is a digitally signed Judgement.
NEUTRAL CITATION NO: 2022/DHC/002479
‘VINI’. Defendant No.1 claims to have a strong presence in the deodorant
and perfume segment in the Indian market. Some of its brands are FOGG,
OSSUM, and WHITETONE. Defendant No.2 has been impleaded as it
owns, maintains and runs www.youtube.com which is an online video
streaming platform on which Defendant No.1’s advertisements are aired,
that allegedly infringe the rights of the Plaintiff.
3. The Plaintiff’s case is that in March of 2018 it started an advertising
campaign in the form of a video titled “ZIDDI HOON MAIN” on various
online platforms including YouTube etc. The said video was followed by
another video in Tamil on 4th April, 2018. Similarly, further videos were
released in May, 2018 and November, 2018. The videos released by the
Plaintiff used various forms of the words ‘ZIDD’ and ‘ZIDDI’ to describe a
quality of persons who do not give up despite various challenges. The said
advertising videos which are available for viewing on YouTube have
attracted crores of views. Some of the videos have attracted more than 1-2
crore views. The trademark ‘ZIDD’ and slogans consisting of the mark
`ZIDDI’, in various variants and marks associated therewith are also
registered in various classes. ‘ZIDDI’ marks and slogans used by the
Plaintiff are- ‘ZIDDIS DON’T WAIT’, ‘ZIDDI HOON MAIN’, ‘ZIDD
WARS’, ‘NAAM HAI ZIDDI’, ‘PHIR SE ZIDD KAR’.
4.
In January, 2022, the Plaintiff came across advertisements of a
deodorant product named ‘REALMAN’ of Defendant No.1 which, as per
the Plaintiff, were conceptually, visually similar to the Plaintiff’s
advertisements. It is also the case of the Plaintiff that for the said
advertisement campaign, Defendant No.1 has adopted the mark/tagline
‘ZIDDI PERFUME’ which is deceptively similar to the mark of the
This is a digitally signed Judgement.
NEUTRAL CITATION NO: 2022/DHC/002479
Plaintiff. It is the case of the Plaintiff that by the impugned adoption and use
of similar scenes in the advertisements and the mark ‘ZIDDI PERFUME’,
Defendant No.1 has infringed the trade mark rights of the Plaintiff and also
infringed the copyright involved in the cinematograph works. To prove
similarity between the advertisements of the Plaintiff and Defendant No.1,
the Plaintiff has put forth a comparative chart in the plaint showing identical
scenes from Plaintiff and Defendant No.1’s advertisements to argue that the
commercials of Defendant No.1 infringe the rights of the Plaintiff.
Theme of Plaintiff’s Commercials/Advertisements
5. There are four commercials which a