The Delhi High Court has granted an interim order in favour of co-working café chain Social, preventing a Jamshedpur restaurant called 'Social 75' from utilising the company's registered trademark.
Justice Jyoti Singh ruled that the offending trademark was confusingly similar to Social's and stated,
"Plaintiff has shown a prima facie case for an ex parte ad-interim injunction since the impugned trademark is confusingly similar to the plaintiff's registered brand. The balance of convenience favours the Plaintiff, and it is likely to suffer irreparable injury if the injunction requested is not granted."
After discovering that the defendant had filed a trademark application for the offending trademark 'SOCIAL 75,' the plaintiff, Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, approached the High Court.
It was argued that the defendant purposefully utilised the number '75' as a suffix to the trademark 'SOCIAL,' and that the objective was to suggest to the public that the plaintiff had launched its 75th 'SOCIAL' in the city of Jamshedpur. Furthermore, it was alleged that the defendant's use of a deceptively similar trademark was intended to mislead the general public into believing that the plaintiff was the source of these goods.
The Court reasoned that if the injunction was not granted, the plaintiff's network of restaurants and cafés would suffer irreparable loss, and thus restricted the operators of the Jamshedpur location from utilising the 'Social' brand until the next date of hearing.
The Court also ordered the owners of 'Social 75' and everyone involved with it to erase any references to the 'Social' trademark from third-party websites where its goods or services were sold, marketed, or advertised.
The Court said, "Plaintiff shall comply with the conditions of Order 39 Rule 3 CPC within ten days from today."
The Court also served the defendants with notice and summons, and required them to produce an affidavit of admission or denial of the papers.
The next date of hearing is November 31, 2022.