ApplesTree vs ApplePlant: How Delhi High Court Interpreted Synonymy In A Trademark Infringement Suit
Case: Vinita Gupta v. Amit Arora
Coram: Justice Jyoti Singh
Case No.: CS(COMM) 395/2022
Court Observation: “Synonymy would cover the semantic field where words have nearly the same meanings such that they can be interchanged in some degree and most common cases under this head are of relative synonymy as it is difficult to find words which are absolute synonyms of each other,”
“As an illustration, under this concept, purple, pink, white, brown, violet etc. would fall under the genus ‘colours’ and similarly, knives, spoons, forks would have a semantic relationship with the genus ‘cutlery’.”
“No purchaser, while buying the products such as Abrasive Paper, will dissect the trademark to find a scientific (botanical) difference between a PLANT and TREE, especially when both are even otherwise synonymous to each other. A purchaser with average intelligence and imperfect recollection would go by the overall and first impression of the trademark and the similarity in idea is likely to cause confusion,”
“Defendant (Arora) has copied the essential part of Plaintiff’s trademarks and has merely added the suffix PLANT as well as a prefix NU thereto,”
“In my prima facie view, learned counsel for the Plaintiff is also right in contending that not only there is a visual similarity in the competing marks but the two are also similar in idea i.e. semantic similarity,”
“Viewing the two trademarks, the prima facie conclusion that this Court draws is that an attempt has been made by the Defendant to pass off his goods under the impugned trademark by coming as close as possible to the Plaintiff’s packaging/label in terms of colour combination, background colour, graphics, etc,”
“In my view, Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of injunction. Balance of convenience also lies in favour of the Plaintiff who has been using the trademark since the year 2018, i.e., prior in point in time to the Defendant who has dishonestly chosen to adopt a deceptively similar trademark in 2019 in respect of identical goods, with a view to pass off his goods as that of the Plaintiff. In case the interim injunction is not granted, irreparable injury shall be caused to the Plaintiff,”
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Keywords
Trademark Infringement Suit
