The recent enactment of three new criminal laws in India (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023) empowers Indian police and judi...
Published On: 09/11/2023
Practice Area: Dispute Resolution
Authors:
Bharadwaj Jaishankar
Kshitij Parashar
Recently, the High Court of Delhi confronted a peculiar situation where during the pendency of a trademark infringement suit filed in the year 2005, the Defendant’s mark obtained registration from the trademark registry. Interestingly, the application for registration of the Defendant’s mark was pending for 19 years. As the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (“Act”) postulates that infringement proceedings are not maintainable against a registered user of a mark, the Plaintiff moved an application under Section 124(1) of the Act assailing the validity of the defendant’s mark, seeking framing of the issue in that regard and adjournment of the suit by 3 months in order to enable itself to challenge the registration of defendant’s mark by way of rectification proceedings. However, considering that the Defendant had not pleaded the registration of its mark as a defense, the Court had dismissed this application. Subsequently, as the Court still had reservations as to whether the fact of registration of the defendant’s mark can be ignored, even if the defendant has not specifically raised a defence under Section 30(2)(e) of the Act, the Court appointed amici curiae to assist it in resolving the issue.
