Zeal’s Highlights
Descriptive Words/ Religious Symbols/ Names of Deities Cannot be Monopolized
In the case of Om Logistics Ltd. vs Sh Mahendra Pandey (CS (COMM) 447/2021), the Defendant represented by ZEAL Attorneys along with Adv. Rahul Ajatshatru and Adv. Gitika Khanchandani filed an application in Delhi High Court under Order 39 Rule 4 for setting aside of the ex-parte ad interim injunction passed against the Defendant on 16.09.2021 (impugned order). A Single Bench of Justice Amit Bansal on 15th March 2022 set aside an injunction granted against the Defendant on the mark OM EXPRESS LOGISTICS.
Misrepresentation and concealment of facts: Plaintiff has misrepresented facts to obtain ex parte ad interim injunction order and is guilty of suppression and concealment of material facts. Religious symbols/ names of deities cannot be monopolized: “OM” is a religious symbol and cannot be monopolized by anyone. References were made to the judgment of the Division Bench in Bhole Baba Milk Food Industries v. Parul Food Specialities Pvt. Ltd. (2102) 186 DLT 234 (DB) and Shree Ganesh Besan Mills v. Ganesh Grains Ltd 2021 SCC Online Cal 3068. Descriptive/Laudatory Use Of “Express‟ And “Logistics”: It was held that the words “EXPRESS‟ as well as “LOGISTICS‟ are common words of the English dictionary and are used in a laudatory/descriptive manner in the present case. Common to trade words cannot be monopolized: The marks “OM‟, and “LOGISTICS‟ are common to trade and cannot be monopolized.Trade Mark and Copyright Infringement
In the case of Usha Varia vs Rupinder Kaur & Ors (CS(COMM) 446/2022), Usha Varia (Plaintiff) represented by ZEAL Attorneys along with Adv. Rahul Ajatshatru filed a suit for perpetual and mandatory injunction against infringement of Trademark, Copyright, Passing off and Breach of Confidentiality and unfair competition against the Defendants for use of the mark ‘Samoolam’ in Class 11 before the District Court of Saket.
The Court granted an ex-parte ad interim injunction in favour of Usha Varia on 02.08.2022. The Defendants were restrained till next date of hearing from infringing the Plaintiff’s registered trade mark ‘SAMOOLAM’ and from doing anything that will amount to passing off of Plaintiff’s trade mark and Copyright material.
Lack of Jurisdiction
ZEAL Attorneys represented the Defendants in the case Chander Prakash Sharma vs M/S Evex Auto India Pvt. Ltd and Others (23 CS ADJ 32/23) at Dwarka Court. ZEAL was successful in getting the Plaint filed by the Plaintiff dismissed on the grounds of lack of territorial jurisdiction under Order VII Rule 10 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC). The Court rightly upheld the principles of territorial jurisdiction as enshrined in the CPC.
Setting aside of Execution Petition
Justice delayed is not always Justice denied. An order dated 12.10.2017 was set aside by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court after a time period of 5 years and 9 months. An Award dated 12.10.2017 was passed by the learned Motors Accidents Claims Tribunal in MACT No. 450443/2016 titled Sunita & Ors. V. Jatin Lamba & Anr granting right to ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. to recover the insurance amount from the owner/ driver of the vehicle.
An Appeal was filed by ZEAL (Jatin Lamba vs. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. MAC.APP. 253/2022) on pro-bono basis on behalf of owner/ driver of the vehicle at the High Court of Delhi against the aforesaid order. With the cooperation of ICICI Lombard, the Respondent was able to verify and bring on record all the insurance documents of the owner/ driver. Accordingly, the aforesaid order of the year 2017 was set aside.
Interaction with Industry
Mrs. Shilpi Mehta Nanda was a part of the Roundtable Conference on the topic ‘Publishers & Libraries – Creating Literacy and Reading Culture’ organized by Ministry of Culture, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at the Festival of Libraries 2023 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
International Training Programme at the Japan Patent Office, Japan
Mrs. Nanda was selected by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, India from India to participate in the JPO-IPR training course for practitioners specializing in Trademarks at Tokyo, Japan.
The programme was facilitated by Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan Institute for Promoting Invention and Innovation (JIPII) and Asia-Pacific Industrial Property Centre (APIC) along with the DPIIT.
Copyright and Industry collaborations
Mrs. Nanda, Founder & Partner of Zeal Attorneys, moderated a session on “Curbing Piracy and Managing Copyright in Publishing” at FICCI’s Publicon ‘22
Participant in Policy Making Initiatives
Mrs. Shilpi Mehta Nanda was a part of the Stakeholders Inputs’ meeting on ‘Draft Guidelines for Transfer of Technology (ToT)’ organized by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) along with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and AGNII – Invest India on 6th August, 2019.
Role of Libraries to support Open Access Publishing
Our Founder/ Partner, Mrs. Nanda was invited to be the part of FICCI panel in Seminar on “Unleashing the Potential of Libraries: Role of Publishers” wherein she actively spoke and shed light on the theme “Read & Publish Agreements and Role of Libraries to support Open Access Publishing”!
