Film ‘Mr Nookayya’ violates trademark

The Delhi High Court dealt with two trademark cases in recent days involving big brands. On a petition by Nokia Corporation of Finland it passed a permanent injunction against Movie Express of Hyderabad which wanted to release a Telugu movie called Mr. Nookayya and release music CDs with similar sounding names like Nookaiah. Nokia argued that it was registered also in the entertainment services. The court stated that the similar sounding names would confuse consumers. It imposed a fine on Movie Express whose conduct was described as “deplorable”. Another foreign firm, KYK Corporation of Japan, also won its right to intellectual property when the high court dismissed the petition of Indian firm KYK International. The Japanese firm had moved the Intellectual Property Appellate Board for “rectification” of the record with regard to ‘KYK’ as the rival was dealing in similar products and it would confuse customers, resulting in loss of business. The board allowed the application for rectification of the register. The Indian firm approached the high court against it. Dismissing the appeal, the Delhi High Court stated that the Japanese firm had a transborder reputation, exporting its products to various countries, and the Indian firm could not establish the prior use of the name for automobile products.