Notice of Motion No. 201 of 2015 in Suit No. 937 of 2014. Case: Datamatics Global Services Limited Vs Royal Datamatics Private Limited. High Court of Bombay (India)
| Case Number | Notice of Motion No. 201 of 2015 in Suit No. 937 of 2014 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Mr. Amir Arsiwala, a/w. Mr. Nikhil Mengde, i/b. Sameer P. Khedekar, Advs. and For Respondents: Mr. Alankar Kirpekar, a/w. Mr. Piyush Pande, i/b. MAG Legal |
| Judges | S. C. Gupte, J. |
| Issue | Trademarks Act, 1999 - Section 45 |
| Judgement Date | March 28, 2016 |
| Court | High Court of Bombay (India) |
Judgment:
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This is an infringement suit filed by the Plaintiff in respect of its registered trade mark "Datamatics". The Plaintiff seeks to permanently restrain the Defendant from infringing the trade mark "Datamatics" by using it in its name and business processes and also seeks damages for such infringement. The Notice of Motion seeks interlocutory relief in terms of the permanent injunction prayed for in the suit.
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The Plaintiff was incorporated on 3 November 1987. It is, however, the Plaintiff's case that its promoters have been using the name "Datamatics" to represent their business from the year 1975, when they formed a company by the name of "Datamatics Consultants Pvt. Ltd." The Plaintiff's case is that the word "Datamatics" is made up and coined by the founders of the Plaintiff, as an amalgam of the words "data" and "matic". The word "data" is derived from Latin, and is a common word which means "transmittable and storable computer information", whereas the word "matic" is a common suffix derived from the Greek word "matos" that means "willing to perform", or also "automate". It is submitted that the trademark "Datamatics" of the Plaintiff was well known even in the 1980's, when companies associated with the Plaintiff were conducting IT business in India and Overseas. The Plaintiff claims to be part of a group of companies, several of whom have been using the word "Datamatics" as part of their corporate names. There are at least 21 Companies forming part of the Plaintiff group, which use the word "Datamatics" as part of their corporate or trading name. The Plaintiff claims to have applied for registration of the trade mark "Datamatics" through its group company, Datamatics Ltd., on 26 June 2006 in class 42 in respect of scientific and technological services and other services, including design and development of computer hardware and software, etc. The registration was granted on 22 March 2010. The registered proprietor of the trade mark, "Datamatics Ltd.", was merged into "Datamatics Technologies Ltd." with effect from 28 December 2008. Thereafter, the name of the Company was changed from "Datamatics Technologies Ltd." to "Datamatics Global Services Ltd." the current name of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff has also registered the "Datamatics" trademark in class 35 inter alia in respect of business consultancy, computer databases, etc. As the Plaintiff has operations across the globe, it has procured registration of the trademark "Datamatics" in many other jurisdictions, including US, UK and EU.
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The grievance of the Plaintiff is that, around the month of August 2013, the Plaintiff came to know of the existence of the Defendant with the word "Datamatics" as part of the latter's trading name and style, namely, "Royal Datamatics Pvt. Ltd." A cease and desist notice was, thereupon, issued to the Defendant in September 2013. The Defendant, in reply to the notice, claimed that it had been bonafide using the word "Datamatics" as part of its trading name to represent its services since the year 1996; that it had gained recognition by rendering services to well known companies; and that the names of the Defendant and the Plaintiff were dissimilar and there was no cause for confusion, particularly...
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