Delhi court settles 33 years old dispute over Chatmola trademark

Mumbai: Settling a 33-year-old trademark dispute, a Delhi court has restrained a confectionery manufacturer from using the Chatmola trademark or any deceptively similar mark, saying that another private food company was the trademark's registered owner and original user.

District Judge Neha Paliwal Sharma was hearing a January 1992 suit filed by the plaintiff (proprietor of Alka Food Industries), seeking an injunction restraining the defendant (Anil Food Industries) from using the Chatmola trademark, against which a counterclaim was filed by Anil Food the next month.

In an order dated April 9, the court, noting the evidence before it, said that the defendant or counterclaimant was the registered proprietor and the first user of the trademark Chatmola. So, the plaintiff could not claim vested rights in the mark, nor could it pass off the defendant's goods as its own.

The court restrained the plaintiff and its agents from "manufacturing, marketing, selling, stocking, offering for sale, or otherwise dealing in confectionary goods under the trade mark Chatmola" or any deceptively similar mark.

"It is further held that the defendant/counterclaimant is entitled to the relief of injunction, as prayed for in the counterclaim, whereas the plaintiff is not entitled to any relief," the court said in its 106-page order.

During the proceedings, advocates Shailen Bhatia and Amit Jain, appearing for Anil Foods, told the court that Alka Foods had "failed" to submit any substantial evidence, such as sales figures or advertising expenditure that could establish goodwill in their favour, and that their client was the trademark's registered proprietor, entitled to all legal protections and reliefs.