BOURJOIS LIMITED Vs. NAUNIHAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff before this Court is a foreign company and claims to have coined and adopted the trademark BOURJOIS. The plaintiff is engaging in the business of selling cosmetic products and claims presence in over 120 countries including India. The plaintiff company had the following global turnover and advertising expenditure during the period 2004-2010: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_4923_ILRDLH22_2012_1.html</FRM>

(2.) The plaintiff company is the registered proprietor of the following trademarks in India: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_4923_ILRDLH22_2012_3.html</FRM>

(3.) The defendant no.2 is stated to be an in-house concern of defendant no.3 and believed to be engaged in providing spa services, beauty services, manicures, pedicures, bridal spa and makeup under the name 'Bourjois Spa'. The defendant no.1 is stated to be the Chief Executive Officer of Defendant no.2 and also a Director in defendant no.3 company. The defendants are also operating a website having domain name. The plaintiff sent notices to the defendants in December, 2009 and February, 2010 asking them to stop the use of the name BOURJOIS, but the defendants did not respond to the notices. The case of the plaintiff is that the use of the mark BOURJOIS by the defendants as a trade name and trademark for running its services and as a part of its domain name constitutes infringement of its registered trademark, besides constituting passing off of their services as those of the plaintiff. The plaintiff has accordingly sought injunction restraining the defendants from using, depicting or displaying the trademark and domain name BOURJOIS or any other mark which is deceptively similar to the mark of the plaintiff. The plaintiff has also claimed damages amounting to Rs.20,05,000/- from the defendants, besides rendition of account.