Britannia has a 'Good Day' in court as Delhi High Court grants injunction in trademark infringement case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted an ex-parte injunction in favour of Britannia in a case filed by the company alleging infringement of its 'Good Day' trademark [Britannia Industries Ltd v. Good Day Oral Care and Ors]..The order was passed by Justice Sanjeev Narula, who observed that if an ex-parte injunction is not granted, it is likely to cause irreparable loss to Britannia..In its suit, Britannia alleged that Good Day Oral Care was guilty of trademark infringement, copyright violation, passing off, dilution and unfair competition, and thus sought damages and a permanent injunction against the defendant..Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi informed the Court that Britannia came to know about the same in August 2021 and pointed out that the defendant even has a domain name, ‘gooddayoralcare.com.'He further submitted that the mala fides of the defendants are evident from the fact that they not only adopted the mark 'Good Day', but had also wrongly adopted several representations of Britannia's ‘smile device', which are deceptive when put together.The way the the trademark is being used, the general public will associate the defendants’ product with the plaintiff’s, and this causes confusion in the eyes of the consumer, Sethi argued. .These arguments were opposed by Senior Advocate G Tushar Rao, who stated that the mark 'Good Day' is a generic one used by several other entities. Since it has been registered in favour of many other entities, the plaintiff cannot claim a monopoly over the mark or seek an injunction against the defendants on this ground.He further submitted that there are more than twenty-five such registrations of the mark 'Good Day', and therefore, the Court may not grant an ex-parte order without giving the defendant an opportunity to file a written statement and response to the application.He also challenged the jurisdiction of the Court by making an online purchase of the defendants’ product. He stated that based on this purchase, the territorial jurisdiction would lie in Chennai instead.Sethi, on the other hand, argued that the trademark in question is well known, and has been declared so by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), in an order passed on December 23, 2020..After hearing both parties at length, the Court was inclined to pass the injunction in favour of Britannia. The order stated,"In the prima facie opinion of the Court, there is sufficient material placed on record by the Plaintiff which demonstrates that Plaintiff’s mark has been acknowledged to be a well-known mark. The Plaintiff would, therefore, have a right to seek injunction relying upon Section 29(4) (b) of the Trade Marks Act 1999."The defendant was restrained from selling (physically or on online platforms), manufacturing, advertising, and marketing goods bearing the 'Good Day' mark. The Court also directed that the domain name ‘gooddayoralcare.com’ be taken down, and ordered the defendant to comply with the order within two weeks.The matter will be heard next on December 4..Along with Sethi, Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao and Advocates Sagar Chandra, Ishani Chandra, Shubhie Wahi and Sanya Kapoor appeared for Britannia.Advocates Mukul Kumar, Vizzy George, Arunav Patnaik and Sanjay Vashishtha represented Good Day Oral Care along with Rao..[Read order]