MERCK KGAA Vs. EMIL PHARMACEUTICAL INDS. PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs have filed the present suit for permanent injunction restraining infringement of trademark and rendition of accounts, damages and delivery up, etc. against the defendant with the following prayers :

(2.) As per the averments made in the plaint, the plaintiff No.1 is a reputed pharmaceutical company established over the past 300 years and is engaged in the manufacture and marketing of a wide range of pharmaceutical and medicinal preparations. Plaintiff No.2 is its Indian subsidiary. It is averred that the plaintiff No.1 is the registered proprietor of the trademark "COSOME" under registration No.147029 dated 20.01.1951 in respect of the pharmaceutical preparations under the provisions of the Trade Marks Act, 1999. Plaintiff No.2 has significant sale of its pharmaceutical preparations "COSOME" as depicted in para No.8 of the plaint.

(3.) It is pleaded that the defendant is also engaged in the manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical and medicinal preparations. In October, 2003, the plaintiffs came to know that defendant had adopted the trademark "COZOLE" with respect to its medicinal preparations through its advertisement in the Trade Marks Journal. (The plaintiff No.1 has filed an opposition to the said trademark application at the Trade Marks Registry.) It is averred that the defendant by use of deceptively and confusingly similar trademark "COZOLE" intends to deceive the trade and public into a belief that the preparations are those of the plaintiffs. The use of trademark "COZOLE" by the defendant amounts to an infringement of registration No.147029 (COSOME) of the plaintiffs.