Bombay High Court: A Single Judge Bench of R.I. Chagla, J., held that defendant’s use of the impugned mark ‘JHAMPA’ and labels amount to infringement of applicant’s copyright and registered trade mark ‘CAMPA’ and thus, a case for grant of ad-interim reliefs was made out. Thus, the Court till final disposal of the suit, granted temporary injunction restraining defendant from directly or indirectly, infringing, adopting, using, offering for sale, manufacturing, distributing, selling, advertising, depicting, displaying, during trade and/or business/service, applicant’s trade marks including the registered trade mark ‘CAMPA’.
Background
Applicant, an Indian retail company and a group company of the Fortune 500 company i.e., Reliance Industries Limited, was incorporated in 1999 and was the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Applicant was engaged in providing retail services spanning various segments throughout the country including but not limited to grocery, consumer electronics, fashion and lifestyle and pharma products, since the last two and a half decades. In 1972, Campa Beverages Private Limited (’Campa Beverages’) adopted the trade mark ‘CAMPA’ in its corporate name. From September 1977, Campa Beverages along with Pure Drinks New Delhi Limited, commenced use of the trade mark ‘CAMPA’ for their products.
Pure Drinks New Delhi Limited vide a Deed of Assignment dated 17-08-1983 assigned all CAMPA marks owned by it to Campa Beverages. Subsequently, Campa Beverages vide a Deed of Assignment dated 30-08-2022, assigned the ‘CAMPA’ trade mark and its copyrighted works and artistic works in the ‘CAMPA’ logos to applicant. Applicant relaunched the CAMPA brand carrying a goodwill reputation of 50 years and before the acquisition by applicant, the brand was initially recognised by the mark 
, and that after the acquisition, applicant relaunched the brand as 
. Applicant received the registration for the mark 
on 08-12-2022 and subsequently adopted colour variations of the same device mark basis the flavour of the beverages.
Applicant after coming to know about the unauthorized use of impugned trade mark ‘JHAMPA’, impugned trade dress and impugned logo by defendant, applicant issued a Cease-and-Desist Notice dated 23-08-2024 calling upon defendant to immediately cease and desist the unlawful use of impugned marks. Defendant refused to cease the unlawful use of its impugned marks and failed to provide an adequate response to justify its continued infringement.
On 05-09-2024, defendant filed word mark and device mark applications for the impugned trade marks ‘JHAMPA’ and ‘
‘.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court opined that prima facie, it appeared that applicant was the registered proprietor of the CAMPA trade marks and the owner of the copyright subsisting in the CAMPA artistic works and that the CAMPA trade marks and the goods bearing the same had acquired immense goodwill and reputation.
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Applicant’s Trade Mark “CAMPA” |
Defendant’s Impugned Mark “JHAMPA” |
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The Court opined that prima facie, the impugned trade mark “JHAMPA” was visually, phonetically, and structurally deceptively similar to applicant’s registered trade mark “CAMPA” and the mark “JHAMPA” was used in respect of the same goods for which applicant had registered its mark “CAMPA”. Further, the impugned artistic works were a reproduction of applicant’s artistic works and/or substantial parts, and the added matters on defendant’s labels did not make the impugned labels distinctive/dissimilar to applicant’s labels.
The Court stated that defendant’s dishonesty was evident as only after defendant received applicant’s cease-and-desist notice, it filed a trade mark application for the impugned mark “JHAMPA” on 05-09-2024, claiming use from 01-01-2024. The Court noted that defendant’s reason for adopting the impugned mark “JHAMPA” was that Jhampa was the name of his village and thus opined that this explanation could not help defendant as defendant itself sought to claim monopoly in the word “JHAMPA”.
The Court held that prima facie defendant’s use of the impugned marks and labels amount to infringement of applicant’s copyright and registered trade mark and thus, a case for grant of ad-interim reliefs was made out. The Court stated that in matters of blatant violation of intellectual property rights, a prompt order of injunction must be granted to protect not only the interest of applicant but also that of public at large.
Thus, the Court till final disposal of the suit, granted temporary injunction restraining defendant and all others acting for and on their behalf, from directly or indirectly, infringing, adopting, using, offering for sale, manufacturing, distributing, selling, advertising, depicting, displaying, in the course of trade and/or business/service, applicant’s trade marks including the registered trade mark ‘CAMPA’, and/or any other deceptively similar trade mark or variant thereof, in any manner whatsoever, including but not limited to, in relation to or in connection with any non-alcoholic beverages/or any other products and/or by way of advertisements, marketing/promotional material, notices, circulars, letterheads, signages, either in print or online i.e., on any website/s, blog/s, etc., including but not limited to social media platforms, in publicity/trade material/journals and/or in any other manner whatsoever, thereby amounting to an infringement of applicant’s registered trade mark ‘CAMPA’/other CAMPA formative marks.
The matter would next be listed on 27-11-2024 for further ad-interim reliefs and the present order would continue till 28-11-2024.
[Reliance Retail Ltd. v. Md. Sirajuddin and Beauty Bibi, 2024 SCC OnLine Bom 3549, decided on 24-10-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Applicant: Sharan Jagtiani, Senior Counsel a/w Hiren Kamod, Thomas George, Niyati Fatehpuria, Neeti Nihal and Siddharth Joshi i/b Saikrishna & Associates for the Applicant.
For the Defendant: Pritish Chatterjee for the Defendant.
