HC REFRAINS APPAREL FIRM FROM USING ISKCON’S LOGO

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday declared ‘Iskcon’ to be the registered trademark of the religious organisation International Society for Krishna Consciousness and a ‘well-known mark in India’. The declaration implies that anyone found using the trademark, would be liable for prosecution and damages for infringement. The court issued the declaration while hearing a suit by the organisation, wherein, it had sought restraint on an apparel company from using the said trademark. The decree of ‘well known’ trademark is usually issued by the trademark registry.

The bench of Justice BP Colabawalla, while hearing a commercial intellectual property suit filed by the religious organisation through advocates Hiren Kamod, Vaibhav Keni and Neha Iyer submitted that Iskcon Apparel Pvt. Ltd, sold its products online using the name Iskcon. This action of the company amounted to an infringement of the trademark registered in the name of the organisation.

Kamod further submitted that the infringement by the apparel company came to light in February and as a repeated summons to the company went unanswered, the organisation approached the court seeking a permanent injunction restraining the company from using its trademark. Kamod referred to the plea which stated that after the summons was issued the company changed its name to Alcis Sports Pvt Ltd but continued to use the term Iskcon prominently.

Referring to an organisation, Kamod submitted that Iskcon was established in 1966 in New York and had since created for itself a global presence. In light of these submissions Kamod said that as parameters for ‘wellknown trademark’ as per the Trade Marks Act, 1999 were fulfilled in the present case, the court should declare it so. Justice Colabawalla restrained the firm from using the term Iskcon in any manner, and ruled, “In view thereof, I find no difficulty in holding that the plaintiff’s trademark Iskcon is a ‘well known’ trademark in India.”