Bombay High Court imposes cost of Rs 1.5 crore on Galpha Laboratories for habitual infringement of trademark

The Bombay High Court has imposed costs of Rs. 1.5 crore on Galpha Laboratories Ltd. in a trademark infringement case, noting that the company is a habitual infringer..The said sum of Rs 1.5 crore shall be contributed towards Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund..The Court acknowledged that it is generally lenient in cases of intellectual property rights infringement cases if the defendant is willing to submit to a decree. The present case, however, was “not one of those cases”, it remarked..“This is a case where the conduct of the Defendant No.2 is not only dishonest but also audacious and such which displays no regards to the authority/rule of law.”, it said..The order was passed by Justice SJ Kathawalla after it was found that not only had the Defendant company been infringing trademarks registered by Plaintiff, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. one after another since 2003, it was also involved in manufacturing drugs in violation of the FDA regulations..Five of the Defendant’s drugs featured in Central Drugs Standard Control Organization’s March 2017 list of drugs which are “Not of Standard Quality/Spurious/Adulterated/Misbranded”..The Court also took note of the fact that the Defendant company had, in the past, copied trademarks belonging to other well-known pharmaceutical companies as well..In the present case, the Court found that the Defendant Pharmaceutical Company blatantly copied the word mark, artwork, colour scheme, font style, the manner of writing, trade dress of the Plaintiff’s product, CANDID – B, to the last millimetre..It observed,.“Drugs are not sweets. Pharmaceutical companies which provide medicines for health of the consumers have a special duty of care towards them. These companies, in fact, have a greater responsibility towards the general public. However, nowadays, the corporate and financial goals of such companies cloud the decision of its executives whose decisions are incentivized by profits, more often than not, at the cost of public health. This case is a perfect example of just that.”.Apart from imposing costs, the Court also directed Galpha Laboratories to immediately withdraw all products bearing the impugned mark, “CLODID” and its variants from the market and conduct its business by abiding strictly by the rules and regulations of the FDA..Advocates Hiren Kamod and Sanjeev S Hariakar appeared for the Plaintiff. Advocate CM Lokesh appeared for the defendants.Read the order below.