Khushi Bajpai
Published on: 24 August, 2022 at 20:26 IST
The Delhi high court has recently passed an ad interim injunction against a namkeen manufacturer for using a logo which was deceptively similar to the LAYs “sun banner” device mark.
The Hon. Justice Navin Chawla also appointed a local commissioner and directed confiscation of all the products bearing the impugned logo.
The court was dealing with a suit filed by PepsiCo Inc. claiming that it was the registered proprietor of the “sun banner” device, which was used in manufacturing LAY’s chips.
The suits were filed against Ramdev Industries, situated in Rajasthan’s Bikaner, for using the simple logo while manufacturing namkeen products under the trade name “MADHAV”. While the plaintiff had no objection to the trade name being used, it was only registered by the use of a similar and deceptive logo.
The plaintiff had addressed a cease-and-desist notice last year to the defendant. However, the manufacturer refused to comply with the requisition, stating that the rival marks as well as the rival products were dissimilar.
The court was of the view that the plaintiff was able to make out a good prima facie in its favor and that on a comparison, the two labels or logos appeared to be deceptively similar.
The court said,
“These are goods that are bought off the shelf in normal grocery shop and therefore, there is a likelihood of confusion, especially keeping in view the unwary consumer. The balance of convivence is also in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants in as much as the plaintiffs have spent a huge amount in popularizing its device mark.”
The court also directed the local commissioner to carry samples of the infringing material found at the premises of the defendant for submission before the court, as well as photograph or videograph the proceedings and prepare an investigative report.