Hon’ble Delhi High
Court, in the case of DLF Limited vs.
Rediff.Com India Ltd. & Ors[1],
granted an ad interim injunction in favour of DLF Limited (hereinafter referred
to as the ‘Plaintiff’), restraining Stanley Lifestyles Ltd. (hereinafter
referred to as ‘Defendants’) from using the mark Global Living Emporio in
respect of similar services.
Hon'ble Justice Rajiv
Sahai Endlaw, on May 30, 2017, has allowed a temporary relief to Gurgaon based
real estate powerhouse DLF limited for infringement of their mark EMPORIO.
Background
The Plaintiff is a real
estate giant based out of Gurgaon whereas Defendants no. 2 to 5 own and operate
a shopping mall in Banglalore under the name of Global Living Emporio. Defendant
no. 1, Rediff.com India Ltd. is the registar on which the domain of the
Defendants no. 2 to 5 namely
<globallivingemporio.com> is hosted.
The Plaintiff has
levelled allegations against the Defendants that they are infringing the trade
mark EMPORIO of the Plaintiff by adopting the mark Global Living Emporio in
respect to similar services as offered by the Defendants themselves. The
Plaintiffs in their complainant asserted that the Defendants, by appropriating
the mark EMPORIO, are passing off their goods and services as that of the
Plaintiff’s when it is not so.
Held
Hon’be Justice Endlaw,
in a very consice order, has held that on perusal of the documents filed and
the pleadings made out in the court, the Plaintiffs have made out a prima facie case that they are the
bonafide user and adopter of the mark EMPORIO since 2004 and that the
Defendants use of the mark EMPORIO as a prominent part of the trade name Global
Living Emporio with effect from March, 2017, is considerably subsequent.
Delving into the point of territorial aspect of the operations of the both of
the parties, Justice Endlaw, avered that even though the Shopping mall of the Plaintiff
is at Delhi and that of the Defendant is at Banglalore, the Defendants no. 2 to
5 have registered and are carrying out business through their website www.globallivingemporio.com.
The aforesaid website is
also linked to another website of the Defendants www.lovestanley.com. Relying on the
Plaintiff’s registration of its website www.dlfemporio.com in 2008, which is much
prior to the Defendants registration of their website www.globallivingemporio.com, Justice Endlaw
construed that subsequent use by the Defendants No.2 to 5 of a website with the
word ‘EMPORIO’ in the domain name is certainly capable of the customers of the Plaintiff
being diverted to the Defendants No.2 to 5. Elaborating on the issue of
territorial jurisdiction, Justice Endlaw opined that although the shopping mall
of the Defendants is located in Banglore, the Hon’ble Delhi Court has
territorial jurisdiction.
Therefore,
while concluding that the Plaintiff has made out a case of ex parte injunction, Justice Endlaw restrained the defendants from
operating the website www.globallivingemporio.com or
any other website/domain name with the word ‘EMPORIO’ as part thereof, alone or
in conjunction with any other word/s and for restraining the defendants from
launching any other Mall or luxury goods business in the name of EMPORIO. He further
mandated Defendant no. 1 to block the domain <globallivingemporio.com>.
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