POULAMI MUKHERJEE Vs. DUCKBILL DRUGS PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I will refer to the parties by their names. It would be more convenient in that way to deal with this case. An interim judgment and order dtd. 12/12/2022 was passed by the learned Court below in an interlocutory application in a suit filed by Poulami Mukherjee against Duckbill Drugs Pvt. Ltd. (Duckbill) alleging infringement of seven trademarks over which she had proprietary rights acquired through a deed of assignment executed in her favour by Duckbill, the registered owner of those marks. The learned court refused to grant an order of injunction restraining Duckbill from using the marks. In those circumstances, the present appeal was filed in this court by Poulami. On 24/1/2023 the appeal and the connected application for injunction (FMAT 9 of 2023 with CAN 1 of 2023 & CAN 2 of 2023) came up before this court for admission and consideration of an interim order. An affidavit of service was filed. We recorded in our order passed on that day that apart from the second respondent Swapan Kumar Mukherjee, an ex-director of Duckbill and father-in-law of Poulami, no other respondent was represented in court.

(2.) Upon scrutiny of the impugned judgment and order we found that although the learned Judge had found prima facie infringement of those trademarks by Duckbill yet he refused to pass any order of injunction.

(3.) At the admission stage, without the assistance of the entire papers and detailed submissions, our notion was that under well settled principles of intellectual property law, if infringement was prima facie established, then an order of injunction necessarily followed. Considering that the point involved was very short, we disposed of the appeal by setting aside the judgment and order appealed against. We granted an order of injunction restraining Duckbill from using the marks. The interim order would be valid till 31/3/2023 with power vested in the learned judge to extend it if hearing of the application could not be completed by that time.