Delhi High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Manmohan, J. allowed a suit for permanent injunction, restraining the use of plaintiff’s registered trademark SanDisk.
The plaintiff is one of the largest dedicated provider of flash memory storage solutions under the house mark SanDisk. It is a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company which designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It possesses trademark registration for SanDisk in more than 150 countries. It is also a registered proprietor of variety of word marks and device marks in India. The defendant, on the other hand, was an authorized third party, selling counterfeit microSDHC cards bearing the mark SanDisk in locally-printed packaging. The present suit was filed for permanently restraining the defendant from selling the said product and thereby infringing plaintiff’s trademark.
The High Court noted that Order XIII-A of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 empowers the Court to pass a summary judgment, without recording evidence, if it appears that the defendant has no real prospect of defending the claim and there is no other compelling reason why the claim shouldn’t be disposed of. In the Court’s opinion, the defendant had no real prospects of defending the suit as the defendant did not file its written statement despite entering appearance nor denied the documents of the plaintiff. Moreover, the instant was a clear case of infringement of plaintiff’s registered trademark. The Court was of the view that the defendant was using plaintiff’s trademark to trade upon and benefit from the immense reputation and goodwill of the plaintiff’ mark and pass on the products as those of the plaintiff. In view of the aforesaid, the Court allowed the suit with actual costs. [Sandisk LLC v. Memory World,2018 SCC OnLine Del 11243, dated 12-09-2018]
