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Trade Mark
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Composite trade marks not to be dissected to determine deceptive similarity, comparison to be made as a whole: Delhi High Court
“The plaintiff's mark and the defendants' mark
are composite trade marks, which imply that they are a combination of different elements, and their registration willd not grant an exclusive right in the word ‘d mart'.”
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Artificial Intelligence cannot substitute human intelligence in adjudicatory process: Delhi High Court refuses to rely on ChatGPT responses
“Accuracy and reliability of an Artificial Intelligence (‘AI') generated data is still in the grey area. At best the tool could be utilized for a preliminary understanding or for preliminary research and nothing more.”
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Delhi High Court restrains Hi Tech Private Limited from using the marks HTA or ARS-HTA
“there is no requirement, in law, of a mark having to be registered under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the fact of non-registration is, at best, an extremely weak ground on which user of the mark can be doubted.”
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[WhiteHat Jr v. Whitehat Sr] Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Whitehat Education Technology for its marks ‘WhiteHat Jr’, ‘W’; awards Rs. 9 lakhs costs
“Due to the fact that the defendant has not contested the matter, but compelled the plaintiff to file the present suit, by not agreeing to give up the infringing mark, despite being put to notice, the plaintiff is entitled to receive actual costs.”
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Delhi High Court grants injunction in favour of Glaxo Group for its marks Betnovate-N, Betnovate-C, T-Bact, Cobadex, Zentel, Augmentin
“The comparison of the defendant’s and the plaintiffs’ marks will show that the defendant has not merely copied one mark or packaging but has deliberately adopted a series of marks, in packaging with almost identical colour combinations.”
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‘Polo/Ralph Lauren Co. failed to establish prima facie infringement’; Tis Hazari Court vacates interim injunction against Home Needs for use of mark ‘POLO Lifetime’
“Marks of plaintiff and defendant appear quite distinctive as except the word mark POLO there is no similarity. The defendant’s mark uses suffix ‘LIFETIME’ which is predominant whereas plaintiff’s mark uses suffix ‘Ralph Lauren’ and ‘picture of polo player’.”
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Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Calvin Klein for marks ‘CK’, ‘Calvin Klein’, ‘ck one’ used for perfumes
“Testers are being sold by the defendants, Xeryus Retail (P) Ltd. masquerading them as perfumes of the plaintiff, Coty Germany GMBH for sale, thereby, luring customers into paying money for such testers which are otherwise, not to be commercially dispensed.”
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Delhi High Court declares ‘SUPREME’ red-box device mark as a ‘well-known’ trade mark for apparel and clothing
The defendant, Dhanpreet Singh Trading was restrained from seeking any statutory rights by applying for trade marks or copyrights in respect of the red-box device mark ‘SUPREME'.
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[Himalaya v. Wipro] Delhi High Court restrains Wipro Enterprises from using ‘EVECARE’ mark for female menstrual health products
“It is intriguing as to why a reputed company such as the defendant company, Wipro Enterprises would launch its product, also pertaining to female reproductive hygiene, almost 22 years later, using the identical trade mark as that of the plaintiffs, Himalaya Wellness Co.”
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‘Publish details of grievance officers on website for public access’; Delhi High Court directs LinkedIn
The details of the Grievance Officers in terms of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including the physical and email address shall be published openly for public access on LinkedIn’s website.
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‘CruzOil’ being a composite mark is excluded from Section 9(1)(b) of the Trade Marks Act and is registrable: Delhi High Court
The mark having a combination of words and devices had to be considered as a whole for the purposes of grant of registration.
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[NUTELLA/KINDER v. KINDTELLA] Delhi High Court restrains Kamco Chew Foods from using marks ‘COKOTELLA’, ‘KINDTELLA’ and ‘MYTELLA’
The manner of representation of the label with the defendants’ impugned product, where the unique manner of representation with first letter in black and the rest of the letters in the word in red colour is identical.
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Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to New Balance Athletics for ‘NEW BALANCE’ mark and ‘NB’ device mark
The use of ‘NEW BALANCE IMMIGRATION’ as a part of its trade name by New Balance Immigration (P) Ltd. (defendant) is likely to deceive unwary consumers of their association with New Balance Athletics Inc (plaintiff).
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Delhi High Court restrains Bodhisatva Charitable Trust from using the mark ‘MAYO’; grants injunction to Mayo Clinic, USA
The founder of the defendant institutions was not only aware of ‘Mayo Clinic’ in the USA but drew inspiration from the founder of ‘Mayo Clinic’, USA. Thus, the defendants have dishonestly adopted the ‘MAYO’ mark of the plaintiff as they are fully aware of the prior existence and use of the same by the plaintiff.
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Delhi High Court directs Trade Mark Registry to conduct phonetic search of a mark even at the preliminary stage
When an application is submitted for registration of a mark which involves a word, then, even at the preliminary stage, a word mark search as well as a phonetic search shall be conducted, so that the possible marks which are phonetically similar to the mark applied for, are thrown up as suggested result.
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Words ‘Abu Dhabi Global Market’ used in a device mark are distinctive in nature: Delhi High Court
So long as others do not use the mark, or any similar mark, the Delhi High Court opined that a finding of non-distinctiveness can ordinarily not be returned as, howsoever innocuous a mark may appear to be, if it is used only by one person, it would, in plain etymological terms, be distinctive.
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Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to Infiniti Retail Ltd for its ‘CROMA’ mark
User traffic may be diverted due to the same or similar domain name, which can result in a user mistakenly accessing one domain name instead of the one intended. A domain name might, therefore, have all characteristics of a trade mark and could result in an act of passing off.
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Delhi High Court grants ad interim injunction to ‘Royal Green’ whisky against ‘Royal Queen’, having similar trade dress
A customer of average intelligence and imperfect recollection, who comes across the plaintiff's Royal Green Whisky on a particular date and, later, comes across the defendant's Royal Queen product, will be confused between the two.
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Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction to a well-known mark ‘VIVANTA’ against the mark ‘VIVANTA VACATION CLUB’; awards Rs. 6 lakhs costs
The use of ‘VIVANTA VACATION CLUB' as a part of a trade name will likely deceive unwary consumers of their association with the mark ‘VIVANTA' as a domain name can have all the characteristics of a trade mark and could result in an act of passing off.