TATA SONS LIMITED Vs. MR. LAXMAN AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff, claims decrees for permanent injunction restraining defendant from trademark infringement, passing off, damages and rendition of accounts and delivery-up against the defendants. The plaintiff company is duly incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 having its registered office at Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Mumbai - 400 001. Mr. V. Gurumoorthi is its duly constituted attorney is authorised to sign and verify the pleadings and institute the present suit on its behalf and has filed his affidavit in evidence, which is marked as Ex. PW-1/A.

(2.) The suit alludes to the plaintiff company being established in the year 1917 as a body corporate and is the principal investment holding company of TATA, which is India's oldest, largest and best - known conglomerate, with a turnover of over US$ 62.5 billion/ Rs. 251,543 crores for the financial year 2007-08. Its origin is traced to the surname of its founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, and which has become synonymous with excellence in almost every field of business activity, the group companies are engaged in. The enterprises promoted by the TATA have laid the foundation in the industrial core sectors, pioneering the textiles, steel, power, chemicals, hotel and transport industries in India.

(3.) As per the plaintiff, since its inception, it has been continuously and consistently using the trademark and trade name TATA for its business activities and those of the companies promoted by it; such use is claimed to date back to the year 1868. The House of TATA consists of over 100 companies of which over 50 companies use TATA as a key and essential part of their corporate name. The plaintiff claims to be the proprietor of the trademark TATA by virtue of priority in adoption, long, continuous and extensive use and advertising, and the reputation consequently accruing thereto in the course of trade. It is further claimed that the said trade mark/name TATA is a rare patronymic name possessing the distinctiveness of an invented word.