Delhi High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Pratibha M. Singh, J. decreed a suit in terms of granting a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from selling plaintiff’s counterfeit products.
The plaintiff—Giorgio Armani SpA—is an Italian company that owns various ARMANI marks that makes it one of the leading fashion brands worldwide. The defendants were in the business of organising exhibitions of various high-end designer products including those of the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged that its products were being sold without authenticity cards or nay price tag and hence the defendant’s activities were likely to cause huge damage to plaintiff’s marks and business. It was also pleaded that since the products did not bear price tags, which could not have been the case if the products were original, they could be easily inferred as being counterfeit.
The High Court perused the record and held that the fact that the defendants were offering for sale products under the various ARMANI marks and holding exhibitions in respect thereof showed that they were well aware of the value of the said marks. Legal position was noted to be that under Sections 29 and 30 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, causing infringement to a product would also constitute infringement. It was noted that the defendants neither argued nor pleaded that the products were genuine. The fact of missing price tags added credence to the plaintiff’s claim that the products were counterfeit. The activities of the defendant were held to be an infringement of plaintiff’s marks. Therefore, the suit was decreed in terms of granting permanent injunction against the defendants. [Giorgio Armani v. Yogesh Mordani,2018 SCC OnLine Del 12078, dated 03-10-2018]
