Bombay High Court: A suit was filed by Atomberg Technologies Private Limited (plaintiff) seeking interim reliefs in the context of its registered design of ceiling fan named Atomberg Renesa Ceiling Fan challenging the registration of Luker Electric Technologies Private Limited (defendant's) fan design. Manish Pitale, J., held that the plaintiff has failed to make out its case for claiming infringement of its proprietary rights and the plaintiff has not been able to make out that ‘something more', as required under law, to successfully claim interim reliefs against the defendants, even on the aspect of passing off.
The plaintiff claims to have started its production of ceiling fans in the year 2015, selling the same online from the year 2016 and further that in the year 2018, the plaintiff entered the retail market all over India. The plaintiff claims to have high profile clients and it has been given awards, details of which have been given in the plaint. The plaintiff claims to have used two house-marks Atomberg and Gorilla, further stating that with passage of time, the plaintiff gave up the use of its house-mark Gorilla. The plaintiff claims that the ceiling fan is immensely popular, owing to its design and aesthetic look and that the plaintiff has been using the said design, openly, continuously and extensively since the year 2018.
The main grievance of the plaintiff was that the defendant had obtained registration for two ceiling fans, Size Zero Fan 1 and Size Zero Fan 2. According to the plaintiff, the said registrations were obtained on 21-03-2022, by the defendant in a fraudulent manner, as the impugned designs and ceiling fans of the defendant infringe upon the registered design of the ceiling fan of the plaintiff. It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendant had committed an act of infringement as also, the tort of passing off.
The Court noted that Section 2 (d) and Section 22 of the Designs Act clearly indicate that if a design does not appear to be new or original or if it has been disclosed to the public and if it is not significantly distinguishable from known designs or combination of known designs, the registration itself cannot be granted. Any such registration can also be canceled, if it is found that the design in question has been already published prior to the date of registration if the design is not new or original, and if the design is otherwise not registrable under the Designs Act and it is not covered under the definition of “design” under Section 2(d) thereof. Thus, the value of registration of a design stands diluted, if the material is available to indicate that it was published prior to the date of its registration.
Thus, the Court held that the defendant has copied the design of the plaintiff, something more than mere similarity would have to be demonstrated by the plaintiff for successfully claiming interim reliefs and the plaintiff has not been able to make out that ‘something more', as required under law, to successfully claim interim reliefs against the defendants, even on the aspect of passing off.
[Atomberg Technologies Private Limited v Luker Electric Technologies Private Limited, Interim Application (Lodging) No. 36385 of 2022, decided on 05-06-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Virag Tulzapurkar, Senior Counsel a/w. Mr. Sharan Jagtiani, Senior Counsel a/w. Mr. Hiren Kamod, Mr. Vaibhav Keni, Ms. Neha lyer, Mr. Rohan Lopes, Mr. Prem Khullar and Mr. Anees Patel, i/by. Legasis Partners for applicant/plaintiff.
Mr. Ravi Kadam, Senior Counsel a/w. Mr. Ashish Kamat, Mr. Rashmin Khandekar, Ms. Megha Chandra, Mr. Deepak Deshmukh, Mr. Shrikant Pillai, Mr. Vivek Dwivedi and Ms. Rasika Dhebe, i/by. Naik Naik & Co. for respondent/defendant.
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