30 Mar 2022

Khadi & Village Industries Commission V. Raman Gupta and Others

FACTS OF THE CASE-

In this case the Plaintiff claims to be the registered proprietor of KHADI word and logo marks as well as the Charkha Logo. It also stated that its KHADI marks are promoted through a statutory corporation and in recent times huge emphasis has been given globally to promote Khadi products. The Plaintiff also claimed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it expanded its business activities to various medical products such as hand sanitizers, etc. which are being used extensively by the consuming public.

CONTENTION OF THE PLAINTIFF-

The Plaintiff contends that the Defendants were using the trading style/corporate name/trade mark KHADI BY HERITAGE and the Charkha Logo in various forms to promote and sell medical products, including through the Defendant’s website.

The Plaintiff averred that use of the KHADI marks by the Defendants in relation to the medical products raises enormous concerns in respect of the quality of their products apart from constituting violation of various statutory and common law rights of the Plaintiff.

JUDGEMENT-

The Hon’ble court gave ex-parte order on the prima facie case in favor of the plaintiff as the court is of the view that the use of the word ‘KHADI’ which is a registered trademark, especially, for medical products such as PPE kits, hand sanitizers and fireballs without any quality control is not only violative of the rights of the Plaintiff but also of concern to the interest of the general public as there is no quality supervision.

Moreover, the use of the mark ‘KHADI BY HERITAGE’ along with ‘Charkha logo’ on the website could also lead the consumers to believe that the Defendants are related or associated with/sponsored by the Plaintiff. The use of the word ‘KHADI’ as mark or as logo/device in trading style as well as corporate name is illegal and unlawful.

Hon’ble Court is of the opinion that Non-grant of the ex parte could cause enormous damage to the consuming public on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, it granted interim injunction against the Defendants, their partners, directors, distributors and all the others acting on their behalf are restrained from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale any products including the PPE kits, masks, hand sanitizers, fireballs or any other products bearing the trademark ‘KHADI BY HERITAGE’ or any of the artistic works/wordmarks/logos used by the Plaintiff.

The Defendants in this case are also restrained from using the trade mark KHADI either on a stand-alone basis or in a logo form, the CHARKHA logo with the mark KHADI as also the domain names and the corresponding websites.

The Defendants are also restrained from even using the trading style of ‘Khadi by Heritage’ for the partnership firm and the company which is incorporated by the name ‘Khadi by Heritage Pvt. Ltd’.