Praveen Kumar Gupta Vs. Ravi Chadha and Ors. (Delhi High Court)
Stay under Section 124 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 is available against infringement of registered trade mark and not against passing off
In the matter of Praveen Kumar Gupta Vs. Ravi Chadha and Ors. [CM (M) 428/2021, CMAPPL. 20526/2021] dated 06th August 2021, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi held that it is settled law that Section 124 of the Trade Marks Act does not provide for stay of action against passing off and is applicable only where a rectification application/cancellation has been sought against the registered trade mark.
In the aforesaid matter, the petition has been filed by the aggrieved petitioner since the fact that his suit, which he had filed against the defendants for infringement of his proprietary trade mark “RACER” as also passing off their goods as that of the petitioner and other reliefs, was stayed by the learned Trial Court vide order dated 6th March, 2017.
This order, he challenged, by way of CM (M) 737/2017 before Hon’ble High court, which was disposed of vide order dated 6th December, 2017 permitting the petitioner to withdraw that petition and granting liberty to approach the Tribunal (sic.) by Review Petition.
Thereafter, the petitioner filed a Review Petition, but the learned Trial Court was of the view that the application for review had been filed beyond the period of limitation. As a result, the petitioner filed an application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act for condonation of delay on the ground that time had been spent before the Hon’ble High Court in pursuing the CM (M) petition. However, the learned Trial Court rejected the application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act and observed that since the High Court, while disposing of the CM (M), had not commented on limitation, no ground for condonation of delay was made out. As a result, thereof, the Review Petition was also dismissed.
Therefore, a petition in the aforesaid matter has been filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India seeking an order to quash and set aside the impugned order dated 6th April, 2021 passed by the learned ADJ-02, Central Delhi, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi;
