TARUN CHANDRA ROY Vs. JITUBHAI PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the plaintiff's application for interim reliefs in his pending passing off action.

(2.) Briefly stated, the plaintiff's case is this. He carries on business under the name and style of M/s. Tanmay Biri Factory. In 1993 he started selling beedies, manufactured by him, under the trade mark ?Tanmay Biri?. For manufacturing and selling hand made branded beedies he applied for registration in compliance with the Central Excise Rules, 1944. The competent authority granted the registration on August 18th, 1993. The tissue label used by him for wrapping the beedies has a distinctive design and it is an artistic work within the meaning of the Copyright Act, 1957. On March 9th, 2000 he applied for registration of the artistic design and the mark under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958; it is pending. Beedies sold by him under the trade mark ?Tanmay Biri? became popular in the market. With a view to passing off their beedies as those of the plaintiff, the defendants started using the trade mark ?Tanmay Biri? for selling beedies manufactured by them. The defendants started using an almost identical wrapper for packaging.

(3.) In their opposition the defendants have made out the following case. They have been manufacturing and selling their beedies under the name and style of M/s. Raj Biri Factory. For distinguishing their products they adopted the trade mark ?Deluxe Tanmay Biri?. They have been using the mark from the year 1999. On March 9th, 2000 they applied for registration of the mark under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. The artistic work on the label used by them was registered under the Copyright Act, 1957. The competent authority issued the certificate on October 3rd, 2001.