The Bombay High Court of Justice finds in favour of Itone (India) Pvt. Ltd. in a trademark dispute against four parties.
Following a complaint by Itone Managing Director, Sandeep Sanghvi of a breach of the Itone trademark, raids were carried out at various premises in Mumbai and Kolkata and a range of materials seized. Itone were alleging that the defendants were using a DITONE mark that was similar to the registered ITONE mark.
In May the court ruled that the DITONE mark did infringe the plaintiffs “ITONE” trademark. The court issued a permanent order and injunction restraining the Defendants and others from infringing the Plaintiff’s mark ‘ITONE’ by the use of the mark ‘DITONE’ or any other mark identical and/or deceptively similar to the Plaintiff’s registered trademarks.
The court further granted a permanent order and injunction restraining the Defendants from passing off the goods of the Plaintiff’s manufactured and sold by it under the mark ‘ITONE’ or any other identical/deceptively similar mark.
Costs and damages in the sum of Rs. 5 Lacs ($7,260/ €6,450) were awarded against the first defendant, Dhanraj Surana M/s Disha Copier, which by mutual consent will be donated to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Costs and damages were not sought or awarded against the other defendants, Patel Traders, Mayurkumar Nandlal Punj and Lalaji Naran Hanat all of Mumbai.
Itone Managing Director, Sandeep Sanghvi told The Recycler “that various Honorable High Courts in India are taking a very strict view for copying trademarks and labels of others and such parties are being penalized by being made to pay lacs of rupees as a penalty.”
At a recent IP conference in New Delhi Mondaq reported “the focus was on the collaborative enforcement between various state authorities and enforcement agencies and discussed growth and development of IPR regime in India along with the steps taken by the government to promote IP together with the role of judiciary and agencies in enforcement of IPR laws in the country. It stressed the need for stringent implementation of existing laws in the country to safeguard intellectual property rights.
Delivering the special address, Honorable Mr Justice Dipak Misra stressed on the need for “Intellectual Vigilance” with a view to protect those who were creating, inventing or were busy in the field of innovations. Further, he highlighted how collaborative enforcement in today’s competitive environment had placed itself on a pedestal in the context of economic growth and was becoming increasingly important.”
