KABUSHIKI KAISHA Vs. S K SIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit for permanent injunction, damages, rendition of accounts and delivery up of the infringing material etc.

(2.) The Plaintiff is a company incorporated in Japan which was founded in the year 1875. Initially, the Plaintiff company was set up under the name Tanaka Seizo-sho and the name was changed to Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba in the year 1984 trading as Toshiba Corporation. The Plaintiff company is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products, spanning information and communications equipments and systems, internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and materials, power systems, industrial and social infrastructure systems and household appliances. The Toshiba Corporation operates globally in a number of countries including India and it had net sales of Rs. 3834.05 billion in the year 2008 with sales of Rs. 664 billion in the Asian region outside Japan alone.

(3.) The Plaintiff company has been selling its products throughout the world under the trademark TOSHIBA which it claims to have adopted in the year 1939. TOSHIBA is stated to be a coined word, by taking the letters 'TO' from the word 'Tokyo' appearing to the name of 'Tokyo Electric Company' and the letters 'SHIBA' having been taken from Shibaura appearing in the name 'Shibaura Engineering Works'. It would be pertinent to note here that Shibaura Seisaku-sho and Tokyo Denki were merged to form Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company Limited, which name was later changed first to Tokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha and then to Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba.