Delhi High Court: In a suit filed by Wipro Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. (‘Wipro’) to seek permanent injunction restraining infringement of its trade mark “WIPRO”, passing off, and unfair trade practice, rendition of accounts, damages, etc., a Single Judge Bench of Mini Pushkarna, J. granted ex parte ad interim injunction to Wipro and restrained Wipro Gas Service along with other defendants from selling supplying, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in any goods and services under the trade mark “WIPRO” or any other trade mark which may be identical or deceptively similar.
Background
The present suit was filed by Wipro against Wipro Gas Service to restrain it from using the trade mark “WIPRO” which was identical to its registered and well-known trade mark/trade name.
Wipro submitted that it is a part of the group companies which are now conducting the diverse business activities that its predecessor had expanded into over the years. However, its predecessor had decided to bifurcate its Information Technology sector and customer care, which ultimately led to the incorporation of Wipro.
It was also submitted that Wipro had been conducting its business under the unique and inherently distinctive trade mark “WIPRO” at least since 1977 through its predecessor and to statutorily safeguard its rights over the trade mark, Wipro had got the registrations on its well-known trade mark and its formative trade marks under the Trade Marks Act, 1999.
Wipro contended that its was shocked to come across the website of Wipro Gas Service in December whereby the trade mark “WIPRO” was being prominently used for providing LPG gas pipeline installation and repair services. Upon further investigation, Wipro came across two trade mark applications that were filed by defendant 2, one of which was for the trade mark “WIPRO GAS”.
Wipro also submitted that it was using the well-known trade mark “WIPRO” for identical/similar services i.e. gas utilities and that Wipro Gas Service’s use of the trade mark/trade name was mala fide ab initio as the same was done with dishonest intention to attain illicit gains by riding upon the goodwill and reputation of Wipro.
Decision
The Court noted that Wipro had demonstrated a prima facie case for the grant of injunction, and it would suffer an irreparable loss if no ex parte ad interim injunction was granted. It was also said that the balance of convenience was in favour of Wipro.
Thus, the Court restrained the defendants, their proprietors/partners/directors and all other acting for and on their behalf from selling, offering for sale, supplying, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in any goods and services under the trade mark “WIPRO” or any other trade mark/trade name which may be identical to or deceptively similar to “WIPRO”.
The Court issued notice to the defendants and allowed the reply to be filed within four weeks.
The matter has been further listed on 20-05-2025.
[Wipro Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. v. Wipro Gas Service, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 9423, Decided on 24-12-2024]
Authored by Justice Mini Pushkarna
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Plaintiff — Advocate Ankur Sangal, Advocate Ankit Arvind, Advocate Raghu Vinayak Sinha
For Defendants — None
Buy Trade Marks Act, 1999 HERE
