AIA ENGINEERING PVT LTD Vs. BHARAT DAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY filing this Appeal from Order under Section 43 of Civil Procedure Code, the appellant, who is the original plaintiff of Civil Suit No. 3317/2001, has challenged the judgment and order passed by learned Judge of City Civil Court, Ahmedabad below notice of motion Exh. 5/6 in the aforesaid suit, by which the learned trial Judge has dismissed the interim injunction application, while granting certain directions to defendant no. 2.

(2.) THE appellant is a private limited company. It has filed the aforesaid suit alleging that the defendants have illegally accessed the technology, which is referred to in the pleadings and are using the trade secrets of the plaintiff for their own gain. The details of such technology and trade secrets are described in the plaint. It is the case of the plaintiff that the plaintiff is a private limited company engaged in the business of manufacturing of high chromium wear resistance castings including grinding media balls and liners for tube mills, inserted rolls, related castings and airport ring assembly for vertical mills having application in power generation, mining and cement manufacturing industries. As per the averments in paragraph 2 of the interim injunction application, initially, the technology for manufacturing the aforesaid products was received by the plaintiff from Magotteaux S. A. , (a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Belgium) under the Technical and Financial Collaboration Agreement dated 28/6/1991. The said technology was subsequently refined, modified and developed by the plaintiff jointly with Magotteaux S. A. during their collaboration. The said technology constitutes the trade secrets of (i) Design parts for balls mills, vertical mills, kilns and crushers; (ii) chemical formulae; (iii) methoding of casting manufacture; (iv) manufacturing process (v) heat treatment technology (vi) knowhow to adapt this technology to deliver end products capable of satisfying the exact working condition and application; (vii) process knowhow for optimization work of equipments where the wear part are fitted; (viii) developing special equipment for manufacturing the products. It is also the case of the plaintiff that Magotteaux S. A. was one of the world"s leading manufacturer of special steel products and grinding media and is engaged throughout the world in the business of research, development, manufacturing and sales of products and is a specialist in the business of studying and solving grinding problems by using special techniques. The aforesaid trade secrets were made available to the plaintiff by Magotteaux and/or developed by the plaintiff under the above-referred agreement subject to strict terms of confidentiality and on payment of substantial amount of costs by the plaintiff. It was further the case of the plaintiff that the information, which constitutes the trade secrets, referred to above, is not generally or otherwise available to any person.

(3.) IT was also the case of the plaintiff that under the terms of the collaboration the plaintiff has paid an amount of Rs. 1883. 99 lacs as royalty to Magotteaux for technology in relation to the aforesaid products, and additional amount of Rs. 171. 96 lacs to Slegten S. A. , Belgium for additional technology available through Magotteaux and an amount of Rs. 50. 81 lacs to a company known as South Western Corporation of USA for obtaining technology in respect of airport ring assembly. Accordingly, the plaintiff has also invested a sum of Rs. 550 lacs in research and development in relation to the aforesaid products till date.