Recently, the Delhi High Court dismissed an application for interim injunction filed by M/s Lightbook (“Plaintiff”), against use and registration of a similar mark by Mr. Pravin Shriram Kadam (“Defendant”).
The Plaintiff had applied for registration of the Lightbook Label in September 2015, in Class 42 for consultancy services in relation to lighting, whereas, the Defendant had applied for the registration of the mark Lightbook Device in September 2014 in Class 11, in relation to apparatus for lighting, etc. The Plaintiff’s mark was granted registration in January 2017. The Defendant, in September 2019, filed an application under Section 57 of the Trade Marks Act, seeking rectification of the Plaintiff’s registration for the Plaintiff’s Lightbook Label. The Plaintiff on January 14, 2020, filed a response to this rectification application in which it was submitted that the rival marks are dissimilar.
The present application was filed by the Plaintiff based on the deceptive similarity between the rival marks where the contradictory submissions made by the Plaintiff in their response were brought to light. The Plaintiff argued that it is not permissible to solely rely on the submissions made by the Plaintiff in their response. Whereas it was the Defendant’s case that the submissions made by the Plaintiff in their response were very clear and unequivocal.
The court opined that the Plaintiff cannot, at the prima facie stage, escape the consequences of their submissions made in the response. It was observed that the Plaintiff had not only asserted that there is no possibility of confusion between the rival marks, but that, in fact, there did not exist any such confusion in the market at all. Further, the court opined that the omission on part of the Plaintiff to place this reply on record ipso facto disentitled the Plaintiff to claim the relief in the present application. In view of the above, the court dismissed the Plaintiff’s application seeking interim injunction based on the submissions made in the response dated January 14, 2020.
MS Lightbook & Anr. vs. Mr. Pravin Shriram Kadam & Ors., CS (COMM) 56 of 2022, Judgement dated April 24, 2023