Our Associate, Sandeep Gupta discusses “Delhi High Court Injuncts User of Three-Letter Mark”
Recently in two separate suits for infringement of trade mark and passing-off filed by USV Private Limited, the Delhi High Court granted ex-parte ad-interim injunctions against unrelated parties, Akme Biotec and Paksons Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd.
USV alleged that it is the registered proprietor of trade marks M.V.I., M.V.I. AA, M.V.I., VI-SYNERAL and VISYNERAL for multivitamin infusions. It contended that Paksons was using Multi Vitamin Infusion and Akme Biotec was using M.V.A., both for identical goods, namely, multivitamin infusions. Therefore, as per USV, the defendants were, severally, liable for infringement and the tort of passing-off.
The rival marks are shown below:
Plaintiff’s Product
Paksons’ Use
Akme’s Use
It was USV’s contention that, in Paksons’ case, the use of Multi Vitamin Infusion with the emphasis on the first alphabet of each word and the enlargement of the letters M, V and I would cause consumers to mistakenly believe that Paksons’ goods emanated from USV.
In the case of Akme Biotec, the Plaintiff contended that the mark M.V.A. would ride on the goodwill and reputation generated by its registered trade marks.
In both cases, the Court ruled that a prima facie case has been made out and balance of convenience also lies in favour of USV. Accordingly, ex-parte ad-interim injunctions were granted restraining the defendants and others from using the above-noted marks or any other marks deceptively similar to the USV’s marks.
USV Private Limited v. Akme Biotec, [CS(COMM) 219/2020] and USV Private Limited v. Paksons Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd., [CS (COMM) 220/2020] order dt. 3.7.20