DOLPHIN LABORATORRIES LIMITED Vs. ARUN KUMAR BANSAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the first application (I.A. 9739/94), the plaintiff prays for an injunction during the pendency of the suit restraining the defendants from using the word "Dolphin' or any other word deceptively /confusingly similar thereto as a part of the trade/corporate name of defendant No. 4 and by the other application (I.A. 1268/95), a prayer has been made by the plaintiff for restraining the defendants from raising money from the public under the impugned corporate name "Dolphin" and to stay their proposed public issue opening on 28th February, 1995.

(2.) The plaintiff has filed the suit for injunction to restrain infringement of registered trade mark and passing off its trade/corporate name and rendition of accounts etc. It is alleged that plaintiff Dolphin Laboratories Ltd. is a well known and reputed public limited company engaged since 1951, in the business of manufacturing and making of various types of drugs and pharmaceutical products. Its registered office is,at Calcutta with branches in Bombay and A medabad and sales offices in Calcutta, Hyderabad, Patna, New Delhi, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.

(3.) It is alleged that the plaintiff was incorporated on 9th July, 1951 & in 1952 it adopted its present corporate name (Dolphin Laboratories Ltd.). The range of products which the plaintiff manufactures/mercantise, inter alia, covers anti-biotics, anti haemorrhagics, haemostatics, lipotropic drugs, appetite stimulants, natural enzymes and amoebicides. Plaintiff claims that it is the proprietor of more than 100 trade marks including" Dolphin" which is also the house mark of the plaintiff. Considerable amount has been spent over the years towards sale promotional activities to acquaint the medical trade and profession with its developments and innovations and in all such activities the word "Dolphin" being the corporate name, trade mark and house mark of the plaintiff has prominently been identified. Plaintiff's turn over exceeds Rs. 22 crores. The word "Dolphin" constitute the key name and distinguishing feature of the plaintiff's corporate name duly registered with the Registrar of Companies and is in use in the course of trade continuously for the last 42 years. As a result of the plaintiff's effort, in the course of trade the word "Dolphin" has become distinctive and exclusively indentified with the plaintiff. Dolphin as trade mark and Dolphin as device is duly registered under Class 5 of the Trade and Merehandis Marks Act, 1958, (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"),