Cafe madras case

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THECAFÉ MADRAS CASE

Vallabie. H. S



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Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921



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Mr. Jagdish Gopal Kamath & Ors

…Plaintiff

vs

Lime and Chilli Hospitality Services … Defendant



Chennai - 600 004.Tel: +91 - 44 - 2498 4821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 6546 2400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921



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CAFÉ MADRAS CASE

The “Café Madras” case was held by

the Bombay High court. The Defendant Could not justify the bona fide use of the plaintiff’s mark for his own services, therefore suffering infringement.

The judgment was given in favor of the plaintiff who were the authentic users of the trademark for their services and cleanliness. The details of the case are discussed in detail in the following slides.



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LAW USED

Sections put forth by the

parties to case: Section 17(1) (2), 18 & 28

of the Trademarks Act, 1999.



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PRECEDENT CASES Rustom & Hornsby Ltd v Zamdara Engineering Co., AIR 1970 SC 1649

M/s Hiralal Prabhudas v Ganesh Trading Co. & Ors., 1984 PTC 155

(Bom);

Amritdhara Pharmacy v Satyadeo Gupta, AIR 1963 SC 449

Corn Products Refining Co v Shangrila Food Products Ltd, AIR 1960

SC

142. Serum Institute of India v Green Signal Bio Pharma Pvt Ltd &

Anr., 2011 (47) PTC (Bom);

Pidilite Industries v S.M. Associates & Ors., 2004 (28) PTC 193 (Bom).

Lupin Ltd v Johnson & Johnson



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PRECEDENT CASES• Maxheal Pharmaceuticals v Shalina Laboratories Pvt. Ltd

Hindustan Embroidery Mills v K. Ravindra & Co.

The Automatic Electric Ltd v R. K. Dhawan & Anr., 1999

(19) PTC 81 (Del.);

Ultra Tech Cement Ltd v Alaknanda Cement Pvt Ltd & Anr.,

2011(5) Bom CR 588 (upheld in Appeal in Alaknanda

Cement Pvt Ltd v Ultratech Cement Ltd., 2012 (1) Bom CR

519);

Brihan Karan Sugar Syndicate Pvt Ltd v Lokranjan

Breweries Pvt Ltd., 2014



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Precedent cases

Serum Institute of India Ltd v Green Signal Bio Pharma

Ltd. & Anr., 2011

Ultratech Cement Limited v. Alaknanda Cement Pvt. Ltd.

2011 (5) BCR 588

Corn Products Refining Co. v Shangrila Food Products

Ltd.17

Pidilite Industries Ltd v Sai Associates & Ors., 2004 (28)

PTC 193 (Bom)

Charak Pharma Pvt Ltd v Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Pidilite Industries vs. S.M. Associates & Ors.

G. P. Kamath & Co. v Green Oak Hospitality Pvt. Ltd



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Precedent cases

Universal Twin Labs v Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., 2009 (39)

PTC 9 (Bom) (DB);

Schering Corporation & Ors. v Kilitch Co. (Pharma) Pvt. Ltd.,

1994 IPLR 1 27 of 49NMS-2586-2012-S-2549-2012-CAFE

MADRAS-F.DOC

Bal Pharma Ltd. vs. Centaur Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. & Anr

Gorbatschow Wodka KG vs. John Distilleries Ltd.

Athlete Foot Marketing Association Inc v Cobra Sports Ltd;25

IRC v Muller & Co.'s Margarine Ltd;26

Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Co. v Gutman;27



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PRECEDENT CASES

• Panhard et Levassor v Panhard Levassor Motor Co

Ltd.28

N. R. Dongre v Whirlpool Corporation & Anr.29

Living Media India Ltd v Jitender V. Jain, 2002

T. V. Venugopal v Ushodaya Enterprises Ltd., (2011) 4

SCC 85

Godfrey Philips India Ltd v Girnar Food & Beverages (P)

Ltd., 2005 (30) PTC 1 (SC) 40 of 49

Lowenbrau AG & Anr. v Jagpin Breweries Ltd & Anr.

Food World v Food World Hospitality Pvt Ltd.

Heinz Italia & Anr. v Dabur India Ltd.



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PRECEDENT CASES

Burberrys v Cording

Asian Paints Ltd v Home Solutions Retail (India) Ltd

Marico Ltd v Agrotech Foods Ltd

Cadilla Healthcare Ltd v Cadilla Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Chancery Division in Willmott v. Barber

Midas Hygiene Industries v Sudhir Bhatia,

Medley Pharmaceuticals Ltd v Twilight Mercantiles Ltd

Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. v. India Stationery

Products Co. & Anr.:53



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Background of the case

• Café Madras is a famous South

Indian Cuisine Restaurant in Mumbai(mainly serving Udupi food), owned and managed by the Kamaths since 1951 and are Registered proprietors since 2005. It is situated in Mumbai’s Mathunga East area.

• The Matunga restaurant, known for its cleanliness and quick services, was established by Gopal Purshottam Kamath. His sons Jagdish Kamath and Suresh Kamath and grandchildren manage it through a partnership firm called GP Kamath & Co.



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BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• Another Lime and Chilli Hospitality Services has used the former’s mark “Café madras” and set up restaurants in multiple places. Viz. Nashik and Jalgaon in Maharashtra. Their mark was claimed to be used since 2004.

• The Kamaths, being aggrieved, filed a complaint in this regard stating that the latter has derogated the Plaintiff’s goodwill, giving them a bad name. The plaintiff stated that, in one of the papers the latter’s restaurant had a rat spotted in the food and its intimidating the public to fall into a pit of confusion as to which restaurant is being mentioned in the papers at the glimpse.

• In their arguments, the defendants stated that, café madras is a generic name and common to trade, also that they have branches all over, while the Plaintiff’s goodwill shined only in Mumbai.

• The Advocates: Mr. Dhond for Plaintiffs Mr. Ajatshatru for Defendants.



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INCEPTION: The Plaintiff filed a petition in 2012, stating

about their grievance about the defendants fraudulent and dishonest use of their mark. They had established strong proofs to the use and extent of reach of their mark. In fact, when the petition was filed, the restaurant had an annual turnover of nearly Rs 1 crore.

The defendants in response to this led their arguments as follows:

The defendants state that neither “Café” nor “Madras” are register able marks because both are generic terms. Hence, there is no infringement because there is nothing to infringe.



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BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• Further, the defendants state that there is no case of passing off because the Plaintiff’s had not satisfied the “three fold” or the “trinity” test. i.e., (a) goodwill owned by the trader, (b) Misrepresentation, (c) Damage to goodwill.

• In their subsequent argument they state that the plaintiff’s have registered their marks under classes 16 and 42, and that is not what the defendants registered for. And geographically they are not limited to Mumbai unlike that Plaintiffs.

• In their final arguments' they state that the terms taken together is purely descriptive and not distinctive.



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ISSUES RAISED

The matter was taken up before the Bombay High Court. The issued raised are as follows:

Whether the Plaintiffs have made out a sufficiently strong prima facie case on (a) their cause of action in infringement; (b) their cause of action in passing off;

The nature and extent of the Plaintiffs' reputation and goodwill; and

Whether the Defendant's adoption of the mark is (a) bona fide or not, and (b) if not, whether that adoption is likely to prejudice or has actually prejudiced the Plaintiffs by dilution of the Plaintiffs' mark or damage to the Plaintiffs' reputation and goodwill, or both. These issues are closely interlinked, and each has its subsidiary issues.



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Findings

In account of Proofs and arguments submitted by both the parties it was evident that:

• The plaintiffs use of mark was not geographically constrained. The plaintiffs sought and obtained registrations of their mark in as many as 27 countries and European Union.

• Their turnover in 2012 was nearly one crore, whereas the Defendants barely had 25 lakhs or less. And though they claimed use from 2004, they provided proofs only from 2006-2007.

• Plaintiff’s registration and goodwill ware considerably and firmly established.

• They had won several awards and being appreciated by the renowned chef Gordon Ramsey. The proofs for the same had been provided by them in their Exhibits.



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findings

• The plaintiff learnt of the Defendants mark only in 2012 and the advocate sent cease and desist notice to the Defendants. And only after the notice was sent that the defendants took us the registration of the mark.

• Aggrieved plaintiffs sent further notice and sought for leave under Clause XII of letters patent.



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JUDGEMENT

The Judge Listened to both the parties on this issue; he came to a judgment which is exceedingly well written.

• The essential feature of both the marks is structurally, visually and phonetically similar, hence creating roots for prima facie evidence.

• The Court noted that the issue is whether the terms ‘Cafe Madras’ taken together are unique and distinctive. It took the example of Vithal Bhel Puri and Sardar Pav Bhaji to state that while all these terms by themselves are common place, together they connote a particular brand which is unique and distinctive. It ruled that Cafe Madras was an unique and distinctive brand of the Plaintiffs which has been used by them since the 1950s



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JUDGEMENT

And in his words, the Judge read the following, “plaintiff ’s mark’s reputation, goodwill and prior use may

be supplemented with Internet-based material. Where such material exists, a rival user is expected to know of it and a defendant may even be deemed to be aware of it. The burden must then lie on the defendant to show that the rival use of the mark is such as would have no effect on the plaintiff ’s continued use of that mark. The fact that a defendant’s mark or goods or service bearing that mark are not easily traceable on such Internet-based material is not enough to discharge that burden; for , evidently , any person adopts a mark only with a view to foster and build a reputation. In addition, where there is sufficient globally-accessible Internet material to show damage or to raise a presumption of damage to the plaintiff by the defendant’s use of the mark, the defendant’s burden is that much greater . This is in one sense something very like the ‘butterfly effect’ ( we might call it ‘the Google paradigm’): an adverse event in one place may well have severe consequences to the proprietor of a mark though he is in another place altogether.”



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Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921



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Judgment-VERDICT

Concluding the case by granting an interim injunction in favour of Kamath the Judge held that L&C had failed to establish their claim of bona fide concurrent user of the mark “Café Madras”. On the other hand, the allegation of Kamath claiming damage caused by L&C’s use was established and no longer considered only a possibility

Thus, letting Café Madras retain its unique flavour.



Chennai - 600 004.Tel: +91 - 44 - 2498 4821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 6546 2400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921



Hyderabad - 500034. Tel: +91 - 40 - 6050 6009

[email protected]




Chennai - 600 004.Tel: +91 - 44 - 2498 4821



Bangalore - 560 001.Tel: +91 - 80 - 6546 2400


Coimbatore – 641018.Tel: +91 - 422 - 6552921



Hyderabad - 500034. Tel: +91 - 40 - 6050 6009

[email protected]


DISCLAIMER

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Law

Cafe madras case