Court’s Reference To Bhagwad Gita And American Poems Creates Headlines

Introduction

The Delhi Court while dismissing a trademark infringement suit referred to Bhagwad Gita and American poets. This interesting take of events unfolded when TTK which is dealing with the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of kitchen appliances under the trademark ‘Prestige’ filed an infringement suit against an online retailer ‘Hiveloop Technology Private Limited’ for selling its products without consent. The defendant is an online selling platform that operates through www.udaan.com.The defendant sought summary disposal of the suit only for the issue of selling the plaintiff’s products without consent and not in relation to other matters.

The plaintiff’s contentions were that the sale of its products by the defendants without their consent is illegal, unlawful and a breach of the contract. As per the contract, the distributors/ dealers are prohibited from selling their products to any e-commerce platform without the express consent of the plaintiff.

On the other hand, the defendants contended that there is no valid cause of action as there existed no privity of contract with the defendant. As soon as the products with the name Prestige is given to the distributors, it’s open for sales. And as far as the contract with the distributor is concerned, only the distributors are liable to pay costs for such breach and not the defendants.

As such the summary disposal of the case by the defendant was sought on the following grounds:-

• The doctrine of exhaustion- As per section 30(3) of the Trademarks Act, 1999, once the goods are lawfully acquired there can be no barriers. Once the plaintiffs have put their products in the market for distribution then the division between offline and online market forces does not make any sense. 

• Lack of ingredients for passing off- The necessary pre-requisites of misrepresentation and damage is clearly lacking in the present case. 

• No privity of contract- Relying on section 19 of the Sales of Goods Act 1930, the defendant contended that no condition can be imposed after the sale has been done. Even if a contract exists between the seller and distributor, the same cannot be imposed on the defendant.

• No illegality- The plaintiff alleging the infringement against the online platform is misleading when no privity of contract exists between them. And there is no basis for filing the infringement suit against the defendant.

The court while summarily deciding the case without digging into oral evidence and other processes involved in a regular trial referred to the case of Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises Vs. K. S. Infraspace LLP reported [2019 SCC OnLine SC 1311] wherein it was observed that the commercial courts and fast track procedures were established to expeditiously dispose of the cases in favor of litigants, especially those involved in trade and commerce to promote economic growth in the country. 

It was also observed that: “duty of the court to show an exit door to a litigation without following the entire ritual of trial if the same can be done within four corners of the law”. To support this, District Judge Man Mohan Sharma quotes Shel Silverstein’s poem, “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would not take the garbage out! She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans…….”. 

The court further went on to say that the plaintiff has no real prospect of winning the case and if the plaintiff’s claims are succeeded it would lead to a situation as described by Ogden Nash in his poem. An excerpt of which reads as follows: – “Either old magic or new math Into our house has beat a path. How else could Einstein or Diogenes Explain an exploit of our progeny’s? While at the table with his ilk A child upsets a glass of milk. The glass held half a pint when filled, And half a gallon when it spilled.”

In order to support the summary disposal of the case, the district judge quoted Bhagwad Gita, which says, “logic for an action must be known, so also the logic for inaction and that the logic for a prohibited action must also be known, therefore the practice of ‘karma’ is profound”. Thus, the court in favor of the defendants dismissed the case summarily. 

Conclusion

Though it was an ordinary judgment what made it so interesting and caught the attention of people is the reference made to American poems and Bhagwad Gita while passing the judgment. It is unusual yet a captive way to give the reasoning behind a particular decision.