WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT INC Vs. HARIDNER KOHLI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order shall dispose of the plaintiffs' application under Order xxxix Rules 1 and 2 read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure seeking an interim injunction, inter alia, restraining the defendants from releasing the defendants' film under the trademark/title "hari PUTTAR". The application has been filed in a suit for permanent injunction restraining infringement of trademarks, passing off, dilution, damages and rendition of accounts of profits earned by the defendants by use of the impugned trademark/title; and for an order of transfer of the domain name www. hariputtarthefilm. com to the plaintiffs.

(2.) THE plaintiffs assert in the plaint that the plaintiff No. 1 applied for and secured trademark registration in India for the word mark "harry POTTER" under Nos. 1111702 in Class 9, 1111703 in Class 16, 917454 in Class 25, 917453 in class 28 and 1246560 in Class 41, and that the defendants are guilty of infringing the aforesaid registered trademarks of the plaintiffs by the act of naming their film "hari PUTTAR", which is visually and phonetically similar to the plaintiffs' trademark "harry POTTER".

(3.) THE plaintiffs further assert that "harry POTTER", it is well known, is the protagonist of a series of seven novels written by British author Ms. J. K. Rowling, which chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry potter together with his best friends Ronald (Ron) Weasley and Hermione Granger, who are his classmates from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The narrative begins with infant Harry's heroic survival against the evil magic of the dark wizard Lord Voldemort who killed Harry's parents but failed to send harry to the same fate, for which the latter earned the sobriquet of "the Boy who Lived". Owing to his tragic circumstances, Harry was forced to live with his "muggle" (Non-magical or rather human) Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin dudley. The seven books, viz. , Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, grippingly tell the story of Harry's many adventures, his trysts with good and evil, the destruction of his enemies and about his struggle for survival.