MANGALAM ORGANICS LIMITED Vs. LAHERCHAND LALJI NAGDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff, in the present case, has filed the suit and the present application for grant of interim reliefs, in the context of its trademarks MANGALAM and CAMPURE, primarily on the cone-shaped camphor products. It is the case of the applicant/plaintiff that it first conceptualized such a cone-shaped packaging for sale of its camphor products, used as air fresheners and/or mosquito inhibitors, in the year 2014. The plaintiff asserts that the suit is also for the action of passing off, in respect of the said trade mark and also for infringement of copyright in the artistic work, concerning the conical shape of the product, for which the plaintiff relies upon copyright registration certificate.

(2.) The plaintiff claims that it has been in the market for over last 50 years and formerly, it was known as Dujodwala Products Limited. The plaintiff claims to have conceptualized the said product, concerning camphor moulded in the shape of a cone, with the cones being draped in light, non-woven fabric in different colours. According to the plaintiff, the shape of the cone was conceived in-house by the plaintiff. It was further claimed that there was no such product with such packaging in the field of camphor products in the market. The plaintiff specifically relies upon invoice dtd. 6/6/2014, to show that it has been in the market with such product from the year 2014.

(3.) The plaintiff states that with the introduction of the said product, with its unique shape of cone, the plaintiff gathered huge share in the domestic market of India and that in December, 2017, the plaintiff decided to adopt the mark CAMPURE for the cone-shaped camphor product. It is stated that between 2014 and 2017, the plaintiff was selling the said product under the said trade mark MANGALAM and thereafter, under the mark CAMPURE, with the mark MANGALAM being gradually phased out. In order to demonstrate the goodwill earned by the plaintiff in its favour, over a period time, the plaintiff has placed on record the statement of sales from the year 2014 to 2022. It is stated that in the year 2021-2022, the sales turnover was Rs.20.71 crores, with expenditure of about Rs.1.09 crores towards advertisement and promotional activities. The plaintiff has also placed on record, material to indicate its presence in the public domain in the form of advertisement and presence in social media and also its presence on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.in, Flipkart.in, etc. The plaintiff specifically relies upon a copy of an e-commerce platform website download, showing earliest availability of the cone-shaped product of the plaintiff in the year 2015 onwards. The plaintiff has placed on record material to show that an application for registration of the unique trade dress of the shape of cone, draped in non-woven fabric under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, was filed on behalf of the plaintiff on 26/2/2015 in class 5. It is stated by way of amendment that due to inadvertence, the plaintiff claimed user since 26/2/2015, when the actual use commenced at least from 6/6/2014. It is stated that the plaintiff was granted registration in pursuance of the said application and registration certificate dtd. 20/11/2020 is placed on record, but it is fairly stated that the same has been suspended, in view of notice dtd. 28/3/2022, issued by the competent authority in the light of the opening up of such registrations, which were granted during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the plaintiff claims that it is entitled to use the said trade dress to the exclusion of others, in the light of the claim that it is the original creator of the same and an honest proprietor.