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JYOTI SINGH, J.

I.A. 7668/2022 (under Order XI Rule 1(10) CPC, by Defendants)

1. This is an application preferred on behalf of the Defendants for filing additional documents. The documents sought to be brought on record are as follows:-

                                 Sr.   Particulars                      Date of existence
                                 No.
                                 1     Annual Report for Financial      2021
                                       Year 2020-21
                                 2     Trademark registration bearing   September 18, 2018
                                       no. 899370 in Class 14
                                 3     Trademark registration bearing   March 22, 2018
                                       no. 900816 in Class 21
                                 5     Trademark registration bearing   October 02, 2020
                                       no. 2922592 in Class 25

Trademark Class Application No. Validity of Registration 25 578631 05/08/2026 14 1167052 16/01/2023 21 1167051 16/01/2023

30. To deal with this objection, reference be made to Section 25 of the 1999 Act which relates to renewal, removal and restoration of registration. Sub-section (2) provides that the Registrar shall, on application made by the registered proprietor of a trademark in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed period and subject to payment prescribed fee, renew the registration for ten years from the date of expiry of original registration or of the last renewal of registration, as the case may be. Therefore upon renewal, the registrations of the Plaintiff's d'mark trademarks shall take effect from the date of expiry of the earlier registrations, which were prior to the filing of the suit and prima facie it cannot be held that the suit is not maintainable on this score.

31. Before proceeding further, it needs a mention that during the pendency of the suit, Defendants' trademarks in Classes 14, 21 and 25 have been registered and relevant details are as follows :-

                                Sr.     Registration Trademark Class   Goods
                                No.     No. & Date
                                        of
                                        Registration
                                        (DOR)
                                1       899370                       14      PRECIOUS METALS
                                                                             AND         THEIR
                                        DOR        -                         ALLOYS       AND
                                        18.09.2018                           GOODS          IN
                                                                             PRECIOUS METALS
                                                                             OR        COATED
                                                                             THEREWITH
                                                                             (EXCEPT
                                                                             CUTLERY, FORKS
                                                                             AND      SPOONS),
                                                                             JEWELLERY,
                                                                             PRECIOUS STONES;
                                                                             HOROLOGICAL
                                                                             AND        OTHER
                                                                             CHRONOMETRIC
                                                                             INSTRUMENTS.
                                2       900816         D-MART        21      SMALL DOMESTIC
                                                       (word mark)           UTENSILS     AND
                                        DOR        -                         CONTAINERS (NOT
                                        22.03.2018                           OF      PRECIOUS
                                                                             METAL        NOR
                                                                             COATED
                                                                             THEREWITH);
                                                                             COMBS        AND
                                                                             SPONGES;
                                                                             BRUSHES (OTHER
                                                                             THAN        PAINT
                                                                             BRUSHES);
                                                                             BRUSHMAKING
                                                                             MATERIALS;
                                                                             INSTURMENTS
                                                                             AND    MATERIAL
                                                                             FOR    CLEANING
                                                                             PURPOSES;
                                                                             STEELWOOL;
                                                                             GALSSWARE,





                                                                               PORCELAIN AND
                                                                              EARTHWARE NOT
                                                                              INCLUDED      IN
                                                                              OTHER CLASSES.
                                3       2922592                       25      READYMADE
                                                                              GARMENTS,
                                        DOR        -                          CLOTHING   AND
                                        02.10.2020                            FOOTWEAR.

33. Since both the Plaintiff and Defendants are registered proprietors of their respective trademarks in Classes 14 and 21, in view of Section 28(3) read with Section 30(2)(e) of the 1999 Act, an action for infringement would not be maintainable at the instance of the Plaintiff and infringement analysis is confined to Defendants' trademark in Class 25. For establishing infringement under Section 29(2) of the 1999 Act, Plaintiff would have to prima facie establish similarity/identity of rival marks, similarity/identity of goods such that there is likelihood of confusion amongst the members of the public and/or likelihood of association. Therefore, the first step would be to see if the rival trademarks in Class 25 are identical or deceptively similar and for which a comparative table is extracted hereunder:-