Trademark Infringement: Delhi High Court Grants Interim Injunction In Favour Of Khadi & Village Industries Commission

The Delhi High Court has granted interim injunction in favour of Khadi & Village Industries Commission in a trademark infringement suit observing that the use of the word 'KHADI' as mark, trading style and corporate name by the defendants was illegal and unlawful.

Justice Pratibha M Singh was dealing with a suit filed by the Plaintiff-Commission, registered proprietor of various word marks and device marks bearing word 'KHADI' in Hindi and English, both in artistic form as also in logo form along with the 'Charkha Logos'.

The Defendants were a partnership firm namely 'KHADI BY HERITAGE'. It was the case of the plaintiff that the Defendants were using the trading style 'KHADI BY HERITAGE', the corporate name KHADI BY HERITAGE as also the mark 'KHADI BY HERITAGE' and the 'Charkha Logo' in various forms.

It was argued on behalf of the plaintiff that the Defendants also operated a website by the name https://khadi-by- heritage.business.site/, in which they used 'Charkha Logos' and the trademark 'KHADI BY HERITAGE'.

It was submitted that on the website, the defendants promoted and sold various products, especially medical products such as PPE Kits, hand sanitizers and fireballs.

It was thus submitted that the use of the trademark KHADI, especially, in relation to the medical products raised enormous concerns in respect of the quality of these products apart from constituting violation of various statutory and common law rights of the Plaintiff.

"It is clear from a perusal of the plaint that the word 'KHADI' is a registered trademark along with logos and various device marks. 'KHADI' as a trade mark is promoted by the Plaintiff through a statutory corporation and in recent times enormous emphasis has been given globally also to promote Khadi products. Moreover, during the recent pandemic, the Plaintiff has also manufactured and sold various medical products such as hand sanitizers, etc. which are also used extensively by the consuming public," the Court said.

The Court was of the view that the use of the word 'KHADI' which was a registered trademark, especially, for medical products such as PPE kits, hand sanitizers and fireballs without any quality control was not only violative of the rights of the Plaintiff but also of concern to the interest of the general public as there was no quality supervision.

Further noting that the use of the mark 'KHADI BY HERITAGE' along with 'Charkha logo' on the website could also lead the consumers to believe that the Defendants were related or associated with the Plaintiff, the Court said:

"The use of the word 'KHADI' as mark or as logo/device as also in trading style and as corporate name is illegal and unlawful. The Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of interim injunction in its favour. Non-grant of the ex parte could cause enormous damage to the consuming public on a day-to-day basis."

Accordingly, the Court restrained the Defendants, their partners and others acting on their behalf from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale any products including the PPE kits, masks, hand sanitizers, fireballs or any other products bearing the trademark 'KHADI BY HERITAGE' or any of the artistic works/wordmarks/logos used by the Plaintiff.

The Court also restrained the Defendants from using the trade mark KHADI either on a stand-alone basis or in a logo form, the CHARKHA logo with the mark KHADI as also the domain names and the corresponding websites https://khadi-by-heritage.business.site/, www.KhadiByHeritage.com and www.KhadiByHeritage.org.

"Registrars of these domain names upon the receipt of this order shall suspend the use of the domain names. Status quo shall be maintained and no third-party interest shall be created in the said domain names till further orders. The Defendants are also restrained from even using the trading style of 'Khadi by Heritage' for the partnership firm and the company which is incorporated by the name 'Khadi by Heritage Pvt. Ltd'," the Court added.

Case Title: KHADI & VILLAGE INDUSTRIES COMMISSION versus RAMAN GUPTA AND OTHERS

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 219

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