SUPER CASSETTES INDUSTRIES LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner Super Cassettes Industries Limited (hereafter Super Cassettes) challenges the order dated 1st October 2004 passed by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), whereby Transferred Appeal No. TA/117/2003/TM/DEL filed by Respondent No. 3, Tata Engineering & Locomotive Company Ltd., (hereafter TELCO) was allowed in part and the order dated 7th April 1995, passed by the Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks (DR), New Delhi was modified by directing Super Cassettes to remove the circle around the letter T and be granted registration in respect of the mark T-SERIES with letter T within a circle and below that the word SERIES in a rectangle.

(2.) Super Cassettes states that it is a company having its registered office at New Delhi and is the flagship of a diversified group engaged in the business of consumer electronics, CDs, audio/video magnetic tapes & cassettes and film production. It is stated that it markets its products under the trademark T-SERIES and is a leader in the consumer market in India having 2000 video titles, 40,000 Hindi film songs, around 30,000 Hindi non-film songs and around 50,000 songs in regional languages to its credit. Super Cassettes states that the T-SERIES is a well known mark adapted in 1979 by the Super Cassettes predecessor, Super Music Centre, a sole proprietorship set up by Shri Gulshan Kumar who is the founder of the Super Cassettes. Super Cassettes was a private limited company in 1983 and became a deemed public company in October 1988. It is stated that Super Cassettes has been using the trademark and trade name T-SERIES extensively and continuously since 1979 in relation to its goods and services. The mark T-SERIES when applied to the Super Cassettes products is arbitrary and inherently distinctive. It is stated that the trademark and trade name T-SERIES has acquired an immense reputation from the very beginning and that the members of the public associate the mark T-SERIES solely with Super Cassettes.

(3.) In para 5 of the petition, the list of the registrations of T-SERIES in Classes 9, 23, 28, 31, 32, 33 and 34 and certain other classes of goods, totalling 17 in number, have been set out.