Companies often struggle to control unauthorised copies of their
products appearing on the Indian market. The preferred legal remedy
is a court injunction to forbid the sale of the copy products. But
such permanent court orders can take a long time to obtain. In
fact, according to Legal Media Group, a five year wait is not
uncommon, due to the size of India's judicial backlog.
While they wait, companies rely on preliminary injunctions from
the courts, a much faster remedy. One difficulty in obtaining
preliminary injunctions in India, however, is that the courts have
had inconsistent answers to the question of how quickly the
requests should be filed after an infringement takes place. This
has been clarified by the ruling of 22nd January.
According to the legal publisher, the Indian Supreme Court was
considering a case of passing off and copyright infringement filed
by chemical company Midas Hygiene Industries against Sudhir Bhatia,
a company that Midas accused of selling insecticide and pesticide
products in copycat packaging.
An interim injunction had been granted at the initial hearing
but thrown out on appeal because of a delay in filing the
action.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that a delay in filing does not
warrant the denial of an injunction.
The Court added that an injunction should be granted if, on the
face of it, it appears that the use of the brand or mark is
dishonest.
