The Single Bench of the Delhi High Court in the case of Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd. vs MTRM Global Pvt. Ltd. consisting of Justice Prathiba M. Singh witnessed a suit of trademark infringement by the leading tea chain “CHAAYOS” wherein the defendant agreed to change its name from “CHAIOPS” to “CHAIAPPS”.
Facts
This suit was filed by the Plaintiff seeking permanent injunction restraining infringement of its registered trademark and the unauthorised use of the trade name etc. relating to the competing trademarks ‘CHAAYOS’ and ‘CHAIOPS’.
The Plaintiff is the trademark owner of the brand ‘CHAAYOS’ which it claims to be using since 2012 and became the registered owner of the trademark in 2017. It claims to be the leading chain of Chai Cafes in India operating in various states across the country offering customised Chai in over 12,000 ways in more than 200 outlets across the country. Further, where the physical stores were not present, it reached out to its customers via its website www.chaayos.com offering delivery services and e-marketplaces like www.amazon.in, www.flipkart.com, etc. The Defendant, which was incorporated in 2017 conceptualised and adopted the mark sometime in July, 2020 for selling tea products through a cafe under the name and style of ‘CHAIOPS’. The case of the Plaintiff is that the Defendant adopted the mark ‘CHAIOPS’ for offering products and services identical to that of the Plaintiff which is a violation of the Plaintiff’s registered trademark ‘CHAAYOS’.
Procedural History
This suit was first listed on 6th September 2022, on which date considering the prayer for interim injunction that had been made, this Court opined that an amicable resolution ought to be explored between the parties considering the status of the businesses of the Plaintiff and the Defendant. The Plaintiff had about 200 outlets and the Defendant had already opened 37 outlets by that date. Since the dispute primarily was on the word mark and the device and the logo were not objected to, the parties explored various options for the word mark, which the Defendant could have adopted. However, the mediation proceedings failed and on the next date of hearing further options were explored. On 10th October, 2022 it was finally agreed that the Defendant would change its word mark to ‘ChaiApps’ instead of ‘CHAIOPS’. This was acceptable to the Plaintiff. Ld. Counsels for the parties were requested to finalise the consented settlement terms and place the same before Court.
Observations of the Court
After hearing the submissions and since the legal notice was exchanged between the parties in August 2021 and the suit was filed one year later, the Bench noted that some reasonable time could be granted to the Defendant to give effect the changeover. Draft consent terms which were exchanged between counsel in track change mode were handed over to the Court. Based on the same and the submissions made, consent terms were recorded as a full and final settlement of all the disputes that arose between the parties.
The Defendant declared that it would change its mark ‘CHAIOPS’ to ‘ChaiApps’. It agreed that it would change the marks in the existing outlets, shops, kiosks, cafes etc., menu cards, pamphlets, labels, stationery articles, flyers, façades and destroy all pending inventory or stocks bearing the mark “Chaiops” by 1st April 2023. It further agreed to change its domain name and emails and remove all references of the earlier mark from the World Wide Web including websites, social media platforms, food delivery platforms, ecommerce websites or any other third-party websites managed, operated, owned or dealt by the Defendant or on their behalf directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever within one month from the date of judgment. It also agreed to take down, remove and delete all the posts, videos, photos, reels etc. bearing or containing reference of earlier mark posted by it on any social media platforms.
The Plaintiff agreed not to object to the use and/or registration of above-mentioned New Word Mark ‘ChaiApps’, or any variants thereof, in any manner whatsoever before any judicial and/or quasi-judicial authority.
Judgment
The above consent terms were to be binding on the parties and anyone acting on their behalf. The Plaintiff did not press for damages and rendition of accounts. The suit was decreed in the terms captured above.
Case: Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd. vs MTRM Global Pvt. Ltd.
Citation: CS (COMM) 617/2022 & I.A. 14369/2022
Bench: Justice Prathiba M. Singh
Decided on: 11th October 2022
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