The Issue So Far
Arudra Engineers Pvt. Ltd. is a company producing industrial lubricant since the year 1993. The company had filed a petition in the High Court of Madras against Pathanjali Ltd. and Divya Yog Mandir Trust for infringing their trademark “Coronil”. The Petitioners had registered “Coronil-92B” as their trademark. Subsequently, several appeals were filed regarding which Indian Law Watch has captured in this timeline below about the developments.
High Court of Madras: Single Judge Justice CV Karthikeyan
August 6, 2020
As per the order of the single bench of the Madras High Court, it was declared by the Court that it is the duty of any entity filing for registering a Trademark to get it checked by the Trademark Registry. The Trademark registry then researches and informs the party about any prevailing Trademark with the similar name. If the said entity fails to get it checked then the liability lies on the entity to pay the damages to the existing trademark that is already registered with the same name. It is important to note here that the party cannot plead ignorance and innocence and seek indulgence from the Court. In the present case, Patanjali being a big company cannot assume that it can use any small company’s trademark. If the mark is a registered trademark then the infringers have to pay the penalty. Accordingly, the cost of Rs. 10 Lakh was also levied.
High Court of Madras: Division Bench comprising of Justice R Subbiah & Justice Saravanan
August 14, 2020
Insisting upon an interim order until the disposal of the appeal, the counsel said the Ayurveda medicines were being sold only as Divya Coronil tablets and that Patanjali maintains a full statement of accounts regarding the sale. Mr Parasaran said Patanjali and Divya Yog Mandir Trust would suffer irreparable damages if the single judge’s order did not stay. A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has issued an interim stay on the single Bench order, which had restrained Patanjali Ayurved and the Divya Yog Mandir Trust from using the word “Coronil” in relation to its immunity-boosting products and imposing a cost of ₹10 lakh on them for commercial exploitation of the fear around COVID-19. The court is expected to take the hearing in two weeks time. The Senior counsels representing Patanjali before Division bench were Aryama Sunderam and Satish Praseran.
Supreme Court of India: Bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian
August 27, 2020
Arudra Engineering Ltd. has filed the special leave petition against the order passed by Madras High Court on August 14, 2020 as mentioned above. The Apex Court refused to entertain the special leave appeal and asked the Appellants to withdraw the appeal from the Supreme Court and continue the proceedings at the High Court of Madras.
Counsels for Respondent Mukul Rohatgi & Mr Aryma Sundaram (Senior Advocates) assisted by Simranjeet Singh (Partner, Athena Legal) & Gautam Talkukdar (AOR from Athena Legal).
More Development on This
Presently, the proceedings of the matter is still pending at the Madras High Court. The matter has been scheduled to be heard by the Hon’ble Madras High Court on September 3, 2020.
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