ACCOR Vs. AJAY GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Plaintiff No. 1 ? Accor, France, has filed the present suit seeking permanent injunction restraining infringement of its registered trademarks and service marks against the Defendants. The Plaintiff No. 2 ? AAPC Indian Hotel Management Private Limited is the Indian subsidiary of the Plaintiff No. 1 French entity. The Plaintiffs claims to be a global hotel chain using the mark/name ACCOR and ACCOR HOTELS. The details of the trademark registrations of the Plaintiffs are set out in paragraph 14 of the plaint. The Plaint also gives details of the global reputation, sales turnover and the promotions etc., of the Plaintiffs' mark, ACCOR.

(2.) The Defendants started using the name/trading style ACCOR and ACCOR INN as also the logo style which is mentioned in the plaint and hence the suit. The Plaintiffs issued notice to the Defendants notifying them of the Plaintiff's rights. A perusal of the correspondence on record shows that the Defendants had reverted vide e-mail dated 23rd November, 2015 that it would close all the related activity of ACCOR including the website, social sites, company etc. However, despite this assurance having been given by the Defendants, the Plaintiffs came to know that the Defendants were continuing to use the infringing trading style and name and further notices were addressed. Vide reply dated 21st March, 2016, the Defendants gave an assurance that they have stopped all activities relating to ,ACCOR and have started marketing activity of ,ACCORD INN. Finally, by e-mail dated 23rd March, 2017, the Defendants claimed that according to the Defendants, the worth of their mark, ACCOR INN and ,ACCORD INN is around Rs. 40,00,000/-.

(3.) Under these circumstances, the present suit was filed by the Plaintiffs. Vide order dated 12th April, 2019 an ex-parte interim injunction was granted, the operative portion of which reads as under: