Gujarat High Court
Virbac Animal Health India Pvt Ltd vs Dahyabhai L Patel & on 29 September, 2015
Author: Akil Kureshi
Bench: Akil Kureshi, Mohinder Pal
C/FA/1980/2015 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
FIRST APPEAL NO. 1980 of 2015
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VIRBAC ANIMAL HEALTH INDIA PVT LTD.....Appellant(s)
Versus
DAHYABHAI L PATEL & 1....Defendant(s)
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Appearance:
MR YJ TRIVEDI, ADVOCATE for the Appellant(s) No. 1
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI
and
HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL
Date : 29/09/2015
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI)
1. Appellant, the original plaintiff, has challenged judgement dated 18.08.2015 passed by the learned Chamber Judge, City Civil Court, Ahmedabad, accepting application of the respondents herein, the original defendants, for rejection of the plaint under Order 7 Rule 11(d) of the Civil Procedure Code. Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the suit was for infringement of the copy right and passing of the trademark. The learned Judge rejected the plaint on the limited ground that by virtue of Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957 since the product in question was undisputedly manufactured more than fifty times, no right in the Copyright Act would survive. Counsel submitted that the view of the learned Judge ignores Page 1 of 2 HC-NIC Page 1 of 2 Created On Thu Oct 01 01:33:07 IST 2015 C/FA/1980/2015 ORDER the later portion of the definition of 'design' contained in Section 2(d) of the Designs Act, 2000 which excludes inter alia any 'trademark' as defined in Clause (v) of sub-section (1) of Section 2 of the Trade & Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 as well as any 'artistic work' as defined in Clause (c) of Section 2 of Copyright Act, 1957. Counsel therefore, submitted that the suit for infringement of copy right and passing of the trademark, therefore, was maintainable despite the limitation contained in sub-section (2) of Section 15 of the Copyright, 1957.
2. Notice for final disposal returnable on 20.10.2015. Direct service is permitted.
(AKIL KURESHI, J.) (MOHINDER PAL, J.) Jyoti Page 2 of 2 HC-NIC Page 2 of 2 Created On Thu Oct 01 01:33:07 IST 2015