The Bombay High Court has vacated an ex parte ad interim injunction earlier granted in favour of the proprietor of the trademark ‘DOCTOR EXTRA SOFT’, holding that the Plaintiff had obtained the order by deliberately suppressing material facts.
Justice Meera Jadhav found that the Plaintiff, while seeking the injunction against the Defendants’ use of the mark ‘DOCTOR HEALTH SUPER SOFT’, had concealed critical details, including:
(i) the territorial limitation in its Class 25 trademark registration restricting exclusivity to the State of Maharashtra,
(ii) evidence of prior use of the impugned mark by the Defendants since April 2022, and
(iii) the contrary stand the Plaintiff had taken before the Trade Marks Registry while obtaining its registration in Class 25.
The Court observed that the suppression was neither inadvertent nor immaterial but amounted to a fraud on the Court, undertaken to secure relief to which the Plaintiff was not entitled. The judge noted that even after the disclaimer was brought to light, the Plaintiff sought to prolong the injunction and initiate contempt proceedings, demonstrating a lack of bona fides.
Rejecting the Plaintiff’s plea to confine or mould the injunction to Maharashtra, the Court held that the Plaintiff’s dishonest conduct disentitled it to equitable relief under Order XXXIX Rule 4 CPC. The Court emphasized that litigants must approach the Court with candour, especially when seeking ex parte orders, and that suppression of material facts vitiates the entire proceeding.
Accordingly, the ex parte ad interim injunction was vacated, and the Court held that the Plaintiff’s conduct warranted such action even without examining the merits of the infringement claim.
Appearances:
Mr. Janak Dwarkadas a/w Namrata Vinod, Rashmin Khandekar, Pooja Jain, Bhavi Gada. Samaruddhi Naik, Suhail Shariff, Sherin Baby and Mohammad Omar Hashmi for Plaintiff.
Mr.Hiren Kamod a/w Vaibhav Keni, Neha Iyer, Prem Khullar, Vatsala Batra, Gaurav Gogia, Anees Patel, Aviral Srivastava, Rajat A. i/b Legasis Partners for Defendant.
Mr. Deepak Bhalerao, Second Assistant to Court Receiver, present.
