RELAXO RUBBER LIMITED Vs. AMAN CABLE INDUSTRIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of the application filed by the plaintiff and registered as I.A.No. 11401/1997 underorder 39, Rules 1 & 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for a temporary injunction against the defendants from infringing or reproducing copies of the artistic words in respect of which the plaintiffs are the owners and also for restraining the defendants from in any manner manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in goods under the trade mark 'RELAXO' or any other trade mark which may be deceptively similar to the plaintiff's trade mark.

(2.) The plaintiffs are engaged in the manufacture of various kinds of footwears. The plaintiff No. 1 is manufacturing its products and plaintiff No. 2 is marketing, selling and making publicity of footwears manufactured by plaintiff No. 1. The plaintiff No. 1 adopted the trade mark 'RELAXO' in relation to their various kinds of footwears. According to the plaintiffs RELAXO is not a dictionary word and the same is an invented word and the plaintiffs also adopted the word RELAXO in an artistic manner and in a unique, distinctive and novel style. The artistic works in respect of the word RELAXO adopted by the plaintiffs were registered under the Copyright Act and the said artistic works are being used by the plaintiffs in relation to their footwear products. The trade mark 'RELAXO' is also registered in respect of the footwears and the plaintiff No. 1 is entered in the register of trade marks as subsequent proprietor of the two trade marks 'RELAXO' in respect of rubber chappals and straps of rubber chappals, shoes, chappals, sandals and other footwears. According to the plaintiffs due to excellent quality of their products the said trade mark 'RELAXO' and the artistic works RELAXO have acquired in all the markets of the country a valuable reputation and intending purchasers identify and recognise die products of the plaintiff by the said mark 'RELAXO' and the said artistic works. The plaintiffs came to know that the defendant No. 1 is manufacturing cables and PVC pipes and it is also using the plaintiff's invented words RELAXO in the same style of writing in which the plaintiffs have copyright registration. The plaintiffs have also learnt that the defendant No. 2 is the distributor of defendant No. 1 and is distributing, selling and offering for sale cables and PVC pipes and printing copies of the artistic works in which the plaintiffs have copyright. It is also alleged that the defendants have not only copied the plaintiff's trade mark 'RELAXO' but has also copied the style of writing the words RELAXO, and also have been using the trade mark 'RELAXO' in an identical style as that of the plaintiffs. Accordingly the present suit has been instituted by the plaintiffs for the aforesaid reliefs.

(3.) This Court by order dated 19.9.1997 while issuing summons in the suit, issued an ex parte ad interim injunction restraining the defendants, its proprietors, partners, servants, agents, representatives, dealers from dealing in any goods under the trade mark 'RELAXO' or any other trade mark which may be identical or deceptively similar to the plaintiff's trade mark 'RELAXO'.