The following orders/judgments delivered by various Indian courts and tribunals during these horrid times are not designed to be read in a single sitting, or even in a week’s time. However, the reader should familiarize himself or herself with the general crux and the approach taken by our judiciary during COVID-19 so as to turn to this piece when facing a particular problem or set of facts.
This is not an exhaustive list; however, the following cases present a brief outline and rather a decidedly improved understanding of the prevalent key case laws and most talked about issues in the domain of Intellectual Property Law in India in the time of the pandemic. They are as follows:
Arudra Engineers Private Limited and Ors. vs. Patanjali Ayurved Limited and Ors. (O.A. No. 258 of 2020 in C.S. No. 163 of 2020, Madras High Court)1 and Patanjali Ayurved Limited and Ors. v. Arudra Engineers Private Limited (O.S.A. No. 169 of 2020, Madras High Court) – ‘CORONIL’ trademark dispute
In a recent trademark legal dispute between two companies – M/s. Arudra Engineering Private Limited, subsequently, amended to M/s. Arudra Engineers Private Limited, Chennai (“Plaintiff”) filed a suit alleging trademark infringement against M/s. Patanjali Ayurved Limited, New Delhi, a consumer goods company, and subsequently, by amendment also against Divya Yog Mandir Trust, Haridwar, Uttarakhand (“Defendants”) before the Hon’ble Madras High Court. The court was inclined to grant the injunction since the plaintiff was successful in fulfilling the ingredients as laid down in S. 29(4)(b) of the Trademarks Act, 1999 which states that even if the infringing trademark is used to trade goods or services which are unrelated to goods or services traded under the infringed trademark still it will amount to infringement of the trademark.
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