High Court of Madras decision regarding a dishonest intention of making undue profits by using the trademark ‘Apollo’, which belongs exclusively to the plaintiff.
Title : Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd v. Dr.Dheeraj Saurabh
Case No. : No.55 of 2023
CORAM : THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ABDUL QUDDHOSE
Introduction
To grant permanent injunction restraining the defendant from infringing the registered trademarks of the plaintiff including ‘Apollo’, ‘Apollo Hospitals’, ‘Apollo Diagnostics’ and ‘Apollo Clinic’ and its variants by using the ‘New Apollo Hospital’ and/or any other mark identical and/or deceptively similar mark in any other manner.
Fact of the Case
to declare the registered mark ‘Apollo’ as a well-known trademark as per the provisions of Section 2(1)(zg) read with Section 11 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (in short “the Act”). to grant permanent injunction restraining the defendant from passing off and/or enabling others to pass off the plaintiff’s trademarks ‘Apollo’, ‘Apollo Hospitals’, ‘Apollo Diagnostics’ and ‘Apollo Clinic’ and its variants by using the ‘New Appolo Hospital’ and/or any other mark identical and/or deceptively similar mark in any other manner .
Case Analysis and Judgment
Based on the oral and documentary evidence available on record, it is clear that only with a dishonest intention of making undue profits by using the trademark ‘Apollo’, which belongs exclusively to the plaintiff, the defendant has been using the name ‘New Appolo Hospital’. Both the plaintiff and the defendant are in the same area of business. If the defendant is allowed to use the name ‘New Appolo Hospital’, it will certainly cause confusion in the minds of the public, who are familiar only with the usage of name ‘Apollo’ for healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors by the plaintiff alone and no one else. Being a deceptively similar mark to that of the plaintiff, the defendant should be permanently injuncted from using the name ‘New Appolo Hospital’ for its hospital business.
Permanent injunction is granted restraining the defendant from passing off and/or enabling others to pass off the plaintiff’s trademarks ‘Apollo’, ‘Apollo Hospitals’, ‘Apollo Diagnostics’ and ‘Apollo Clinic’ and its variants by using the ‘New Apollo Hospital’ and/or any other mark identical and/or deceptively similar mark in any other manner.
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Written by Nimisha Sunny
