The Delhi High Court has rejected Parle Products‘ appeal against the Registrar of Trademarks’ order that registered the ’20-20′ trademark in favour of Avon Agro Industries for coffee, tea, biscuits and related products.
Merely because Parle Products had commenced manufacturing goods using the ’20-20′ mark earlier than Avon Agro, it would not preclude the latter from asserting its right to get the mark registered in its favour, the court said in its order.
Avon Agro is the senior adopter of the ’20-20′ mark as it had applied for its registration in September 2007 while Parle Products had applied in October 2007, the court noted. The senior adopter would oust the junior adopter for the purposes of registration of trademark when two entities apply for a similar, identical, or a deceptively similar mark on a “proposed to be used” basis, it added.
“Merely for the reason that it has taken 17 long years for Avon Agro to establish its claim for registration of the mark ’20-20′ and in the meanwhile Parle Products had commenced its manufacture and use of the trade mark ’20-20′, will not, ipso facto, give any special benefit or treatment to Parle and applying provisions of Section 18 of the Trade Marks Act… It is clear that such users will not come in the way of Avon Agro getting its mark registered,” Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.
He said Section 18 of the Trade Marks Act does not postulate two different dates of registration, i.e., one for those who waited till registration and other for those who commenced manufacturing in the interregnum while the application was under consideration.
Parle Products, through senior counsel J Sai Deepak, contended that the trademarks registrar completely overlooked the fact that it had been using the ’20-20′ mark continuously from 2008-09 onwards.
Counsel Ajay Sahni, representing Avon Agro, however, submitted that Parle having commenced manufacturing goods and offering them for sale using the mark ’20-20′ even prior to its own grant of registration, cannot be a reason to disentitle Avon Agro from having the mark registered in its own name.
