ASHIANA HOUSING LTD Vs. SKG GROUP & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The dispute in the present case, relates to the trade mark "ASHIANA".

(2.) The claim of the Plaintiff is that it adopted the mark 'ASHIANA' in 1986 in respect of housing and real estate services. Various companies were incorporated by the Plaintiff with the mark 'ASHIANA', such as ASHIANA Housing Ltd., ASHIANA Homes Pvt. Ltd. The Plaintiff, also started various projects with the 'ASHIANA' name including, Ashiana Tree House Residences, Ashiana Aangan, Ashiana Gardens, Ashiana Town, Ashiana Green Hills, Ashiana Bageecha, Ashiana's Gulmohar Park, Ashiana Navrang, Ashiana's Gulmohar Gardens, Ashiana's Rangoli Gardens, Ashiana's Vrinda Gardens, Ashiana Anantara, Ashiana Amarbagh, Ashiana Dwarka, etc., The Plaintiff also claims enormous goodwill in the market.

(3.) The suit was filed against the Defendants SKG Group, which registered the Defendant No.2 company - ASHIANA Realtech Pvt. Ltd. According to the Plaintiff, the Defendants also registered the domain name/ website www thecubixashiana.com. The Defendants were planning to launch a residential project in Dharuhera, Haryana by the name of ASHIANA Cubix Homes. The Plaintiff's grievance was in the use of the mark ASHIANA as part of the corporate name of the Defendant no.2 as also the undue prominence given to the said name in hoardings, billboards etc., One such banner of the defendant's project is depicted below: In this background, the present suit came to be filed by the Plaintiff seeking permanent injunction against the use of the word "ASHIANA" as part of the trademark, trade name, project name and domain name, as also for damages.