Montblanc gets ex-parte injunction against e-commerce site for selling counterfeit products [Read judgment]

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted an ex-parte, permanent injunction to Montblanc Simplo GMBH against the e-commerce website www.digaaz.com which sells “branded” lifestyle and fashion products “at affordable prices”..The trademark infringement suit deals with Montblanc’s trademark ‘Meisterstuck’ along with ‘the Star Device’ symbol which is a white six-pointed star with round edges and the ‘Three Ring Device’ comprising of three metallic bands around the circumference of the pen..The plaintiff company represented by Anand and Anand’s Pravin Anand alleged that the defendant’s website is counterfeiting their products by copying and marketing the products owned by the plaintiff. The plaintiffs purchased the writing instrument from the defendant’s website to examine and confirm that it was a counterfeit product sold at 1/5th the price of the original pen and was significantly inferior in quality..Interestingly, in January last year, the sister company of Montblanc, Cartier International AG was awarded ex-parte punitive damages of Rs. 1,00,00,000 by Justice Manmohan, against the same website which was the highest amount of damages awarded by the Delhi High Court in an IP matter..In the case against Cartier, the website did not file any written statements and failed to admit or deny any documents of the plaintiff. Similarly, in the current matter, the defendants stopped attending court after filing their written statements and therefore both the cases continued ex-parte..The bench of Justice Deepa Sharma granted permanent injunction to the plaintiff and also restrained the defendants from passing off their counterfeit products as that of the plaintiff, but refused to grant damages stating,.“…the plaintiffs have not produced sufficient evidences to show the extent of actual damages they had suffered due to the act of defendants.”.Read the full judgment below.