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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
POWER CONTROL APPLIANCES
VERSUS
SUMEET MACHINES Private Limited
DECIDED ON: February 8, 1994
Copyright Act, 1957 – Section 17 – Designs Act, 1911 – Application plaintiffs prayed for an interim injunction to restrain respondents (defendants) from using, distributing, printing or causing to be printed work as contained in Document and instruction manual, (2 guarantee card carton and work as found in Document interim injunction was sought to restrain respondents from using registered trade mark Application injunction was sought to restrain respondents from using design registration in manufacturing mixies – Held, First defendant-company came to be incorporated purpose of diversifying the industrial activity of family group for manufacturing other technical appliances like washing machines, vacuum cleaners is nothing on record to show that first defendant was manufacturing earlier than alleged violation of trade mark copyright and design as stated in plaint find considerable difficulty in appreciating conclusion of division bench which had failed to note that the proprietor of trade mark is Sumeet Research and Holdings complaint of infringement of trade mark is not against Ajay Mathur but against Sumeet Machines Private Limited and Principle of law relating to trade mark that there can be only one mark, one source and one proprietor. It cannot have two origins – First defendant-respondent has proclaimed himself as arival of plaintiffs and as joint owner it is impermissible in law. Even then, the joint proprietors must use the trade mark jointly for the benefit of be used in rivalry and in competition with each other plea of quasi-partnership was never urged in pleading copyright there is no plea of assignment – High court had failed to note the plea of honest and concurrent user as for securing concurrent registration is not a valid defence for infringement of copyright. For all these reasons we are unable to support judgments of High court – Appeal allowed.
JUDGMENT
MOHAN, J.
( 1 ) ALL these appeals can be dealt with under a common judgment. The Civil Nos. 255,1-52 of 1993 are by the first plaintiff while Civil No. 2553 of 1993 by the second plaintiff.
( 2 ) THE plaintiffs filed three suits on the file of the High court of Madras (i) C. S. No. 343 of 1992 complaining of infringement of the copyright of the first plaintiff (Power Control and Appliances Company); (ii) C. S. No. 431 of 1992 alleging the violation of the registered trade mark sumeet No. 263836 in Part-A in Class 7 for machines (electric) for kitchen use; (iii) C. S. No. 432 of 1992 claiming the design registeration in the whipper Blade of the power operated mixies.
( 3 ) PENDING these suits, four application Nos. 226, 227, 271 and 272 of 1992 were taken out, two in C. S. No. 343 of 1992 and one each in C. S. Nos. 431 and 432 of 1992 respectively.
( 4 ) THE facts are common to all the suits and the applications. In C. S. No. 343 of 1992 in the Application Nos. 226 and 227 of 1992, the plaintiffs prayed for an interim injunction to restrain the respondents (defendants) from using, distributing, printing or causing to be printed the work as contained in Document Nos. (1 receipt and instruction manual, (2 guarantee card and (3 outer carton and the work as found in Document Nos. 4, 5 and 6. In C. S. No. 431 of 1992 in Application No. 271 of 1992 an interim injunction was sought to restrain the respondents from using the registered trade mark. In C. S. No. 432 of 1992 in Application No. 272 of 1992 the injunction was sought to restrain the respondents from using the design registration in manufacturing the mixies.
( 5 ) ADMITTEDLY, Mrs Madhuri Mathur is the sole proprietrix of M/s Power Control and Appliances Company. She started manufacturing power-operated kitchen mixies. for domestic use since 1963. They are marketed since 1964 under the brand name of sumeet. The mixy was packed in a cardboard box and at the top the pictorial and photograph display of the appliance in different colours showing the different purposes for which the mixy could be used was shown. A booklet was enclosed bearing the title "sumeet Domestic Mixer-Operating Instructions and Recipe Book". That consisted of 80 pages bound spirally in hard art paper cover. A guarantee card was also issued. All these were devised, conceived and made by the first plaintiff in 1982. with the assistance of artists, photographers, printers and executives employed by the first plaintiff for valuable considerations fully paid. As such the first plaintiff is the owner of copyright with respect of all the above items in terms of Section 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957. sumeet mixy came to be in great demand in India and abroad. The business expanded. To cope up with the demand, the first plaintiff had to float three more concerns for the manufacturing of the same appliances. The companies are: (I) Power Control and Appliances (Bombay) Ltd. (iii) Mathur Micro Motors and Appliances Ltd. (iii) Power Control Appliances (Kandla ). All these concerns except Power Control and Appliances (Bombay) Limited buy electric motors for their mixies from the second plaintiff Sumeet Research and Holdings Limited. That is deemed to be public limited company. Mrs Madhuri Mathur is the Chairman and Director. She holds 59. 25 shares.
( 6 ) THE artistic manner in which the word sumeet is written was conceived and published by the first plaintiff. It was registered trade mark with effect from 18/04/1970. This trade mark was assigned to the second plaintiff on 1/01/1981. The second appellant is the owner of the copyright.
( 7 ) THE first defendant was incorporated in 1984. It has been manufacturing and selling mainly washing machines and vacuum cleaners from September/october 1991. It has started manufacturing domestic mixies exactly similar to plaintiffs mixer with identical specifications except for power rating. The package and the pictorial display are identical. Even the booklet is pagewise repro
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