The Bombay High Court recently restrained five juice centre outlets in Kerala's Kochi from using the name, trademark and logo of Mumbai's iconic Haji Ali juice centre [Asma Farid Noorani v. Mumbai Wagon Company & Anr.].
Justice RI Chagla passed two interim orders to this effect, one on August 9 and another on September 5, in a trademark infringement suit filed by Asma Farid Noorani (the daughter of Mumbai's Haji Ali Juice Centre founder) who presently owns the trademark for Haji Ali Juice Centre.
The Court found that there was a strong prima facie case for granting interim relief to Noorani.
Therefore, it tasked a court receiver and two additional special court receivers to confiscate all materials bearing the Haji Ali Juice Centre trademark and related marks from the Kochi outlets.
The Court directed the court receivers to take control of all materials - stationary, menu cards, sign boards etc with the Haji Ali mark with or without its logo, which is a red apple.
The order was passed in the wake of Noorani's submission that the Kochi outlets had continued to use the Haji Ali trademark without authorisation, despite the termination of franchise agreements.
"I find that inspite of termination of aforesaid Master Franchise Agreement and consequent thereupon the sub-franchise agreement, the Defendants have unauthorizedly continued with the use of the plaintiff’s registered trade mark including its abbreviation HAJC JUICE CENTRE and logo MUMBAI HAJI ALI, ‘The ORIGINAL STORE’ ... Plaintiff has indeed made out a strong prima facie case for the grant of ad-interim reliefs," Justice Chagla held in an August 9 order.
The ownership of the iconic Haji Ali Juice Centre, which began its operations in the 1970s in Mumbai, had been passed on to Asma Farid Noorani (following a family settlement agreement) in 2019 after the death of her father and the juice centre's founder, Fareed Abdul Latif Noorani.
Prior to this, a Master Franchise Agreement (MFA) with Altius Lifestyle Brands LLP (Master Franchisee) in 2018 had allowed various players to operate Hali Ali juice centres in several States, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala.
With respect to Kerala, a supplementary deed executed in 2021 led to the launch of a sub-franchise outlet in Edappally, Kochi.
However, Asma Noorani terminated the franchise agreements in 2022, citing a failure by franchisees to comply with the terms of their agreements.
However, since the franchise outlets refused to halt their operations, Noorani filed a trademark infringement suit against them in January this year.
She complained that several Haji Ali outlets were set up in Kerala without authorisation and in violation of the franchise agreement. The outlets so complained of included the ones in Panampilly Nagar, Aluva, Kakkanad and Kothamangalam.
She said that these outlets did not respond to legal notices and that the defendants (the operators of outlets in Kochi) refused to pay royalties for the unauthorized use of the "Haji Ali Juice Centre" mark and its logo for the period between December 1, 2022 and May 24, 2023.
By an order dated August 9, the Court granted Noorani ad-interim relief and issued a restraining order against outlets using the Haji Ali name in Edappally, Aluva and Panampilly Nagar.
Later, Noorani informed that she came to know about new outlets in Kakkanad and Kothamangalam that were not brought to the court's notice before. Accordingly, the Court on September 5 passed another order with similar directions with respect to the Kakkanad and Kothamangalam outlets as well.
A court receiver and two additional special court receivers (advocates Atif Sayyed and Smera Sebastian Elenjickal) were ordered to visit the Kochi outlets and take control of all materials featuring the Haji Ali trademarks. The receivers were also allowed to seek police assistance, if necessary, to perform this task.
The matter was earlier listed on September 27 but could not be taken up on that day. It is next listed on October 23.
Asma Noorani was represented by advocates Yatin Khochare, Minesh Andharia and Jay Shah briefed by Krishna and Saurastri Associates LLP. None appeared for the defendants.