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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Date of decision: 27^thJuly, 2022

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CS(COMM) 322/2021 & I.As. 462/2022, 5410/2022

DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY

..... Plaintiff

Through:

Mr. Puneet Mittal, Sr. Advocate with

Mr.

Mohit

Chandras,

Advocates.

(M:981104400)

versus

DELHI PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

..... Defendant

Through:

Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Sr. Advocate,

Mr. Rajat Malhotra, Mr. Vivek Kr.

Kurn

and

Mr.

Areeb

Amanullah,

Advocate for D-5. (M:7428451535)

CORAM:

JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH

Prathiba M. Singh(Oral)

1.

The present suit has been filed seeking permanent injunction

restraining infringement of trademarks, copyrights, damages, etc., by the

Plaintiff - Delhi Public School Society that runs the Delhi Public Schools

(hereinafter as ‘DPS’) across the country. The Plaintiff is registered under

the Societies Registration Act, 1860, vide registration no. S.361 of 1948-49.

It was initially registered as Delhi Public School but in the year 1962, the

name was changed to Delhi Public School Society. The Plaintiff has also

obtained registration for its logo under the Copyright Act, vide registration

nos. A-95324/2012 dated 21^stDecember, 2012 and A-111554/2014 dated

21^stAugust, 2014.

2.

The case of the Plaintiff is that it was formed with an objective to

This is a digitally signed Judgement.

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establish progressive schools/educational institutions within Delhi and

outside. Open to all, without any distinction of race, caste or special status.

The first DPS school was set up in the year 1949 and subsequently,

numerous more were set up. The schools established by the Plaintiff itself

are a total of 12, known as ‘Core Schools’ while also having entered into

agreements with other societies/trusts for establishing more schools that are

more than 200 in number, known as ‘Affiliated Schools.’ Further, the

Plaintiff has also established 11 schools in territories outside of India,

displaying its goodwill.

3.

In order to ensure statutory rights in respect of the Plaintiff’s

trademark, it has filed several applications for registration of its logo, DPS

and Delhi Public School, among others. Further, the Plaintiff claims to be

extremely vigilant about its intellectual property rights due to which time

and again the Plaintiff has filed infringement and/or passing off suits against

other parties that have resulted in decrees in favour of the Plaintiff, wherein,

its mark has been declared ‘a highly reputable brand name.’

4.

The grievance of the Plaintiff in this suit is that a school named

“Delhi Pubic International School/DPIS,” i.e., Defendant No.1 was started

in Nagpur, Maharashtra and is run by Defendant No. 2 - Gaikwad- Patil

Group of Institutions, as mentioned in the plaint, whose day-to-day affairs

are managed and controlled by its Chairman and President, i.e., Defendant

No. 3 - Mr. Mohan Gaikwad and Defendant No. 4 - Ms. Anjali Patil

Gaikwad, respectively. The Defendant No.5 is one Mr. Vijay Kumar Uttam

Bhai Pawar with whom Defendant Nos.2 to 4 claim to have executed an

agreement to obtain rights to use the mark ‘DPIS’ of the Delhi Public

International School.

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5.

The case of the Plaintiff is that the use of the word/mark DPIS is

violative of its mark DPS. Vide interim order dated 17th August, 2021an

interim injunction was granted restraining the Defendants from using the

mark ‘Delhi Public School’/‘DPS’ or any other mark which is identical or

deceptively similar thereto, including the ‘DPIS’ mark. The operative

portion of the said order dated 17^thAugust, 2021, is set out below:

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This is a digitally signed Judgement.

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6.

Subsequently, vide order dated 11th January, 2022, Defendant Nos. 2

to 4 agreed to suffer a partial decree, wherein, a permanent injunction was

passed. Simultaneously, on the said date, it was recorded that