This High Court has directed Trademark Infringer to deposit fine of Rs. 5 Crore

Earlier this year, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation had filed a trademark infringement suit against Kishor D Jain and Jeetendra Burad before the Bombay High Court. The subject matter of the suit was the infringing activities carried out by the latter and the act of misrepresenting their products to be Nippon’s.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, the world’s third-largest steel producer, first came to know about this illegal activity when they received a complaint from Saudi Arabia based steel company called YANBU Steel Company. YANBU complained about the quality of a few carbon seamless pipes delivered to it by Jain and Burad. These pipes were to be used as laying pipes in oil plants. Jain and Burad sold these pipes to YANBU under the pretext of them being the products of Nippon Steel. They also produced forged certificates to mislead YANBU into believing that the pipes were manufactured by Nippon. Further, they affixed the trademark and logo of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation on the products and the certificates, thereby grossly violating the trademark rights of the latter.

Justice S J Kathawalla of the Bombay High Court described the matter as “the quintessential illustration of the extent to which a few unscrupulous persons, such as the present defendants, can go, in order to make a quick buck.”

“It is utterly unfortunate that such people have absolutely no regard for ethics or principles and in the bargain, they make an irreparable dent to the reputation of our country,” the court said in its order.

The HC restrained the defendants Jain and Burad from infringing the trademark of the plaintiff and appointed a court receiver to seize the impugned goods. On enquiry from the second defendant, Jeetendra Burad, Justice Kathawalla learned that the defendants had, in fact, purchased the pipes from a local market in Navi Mumbai.

Even though the parties sought to settle the matter amicably, the court decided to make an example out of the defendants and thereby restrain such serious, fraudulent activities from occurring in the future.  Justice Kathawalla refused to let such activities slide by and instead decided to deal with it with an iron hand.

Observing that this case was to be treated strictly since not only were the trademarks of Nippon being infringed but the products on which they were affixed were those which are used in highly sensitive areas such as oil rigs/oil plants, the court imposed a hefty fine of Rupees 5 crore on the defendants and directed it to deposit the same with Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai.

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