Supreme Court Chief Justice: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who is often in the news for his decisions and comments made during the hearing of any case, was recently quite surprised during the hearing of a case. In fact, on Friday (January 5), during the hearing of the trademark infringement dispute between two liquor companies, lawyer Mukul Rohatgi presented two bottles of whiskey in front of him.
A three-judge bench headed by the CJI was hearing an appeal against the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Madhya Pradesh High Court had rejected the appeal of liquor company Pernod Ricard to stop Indore-based company JK Enterprises from manufacturing beverages under the name ‘London Pride’. Pernod Company had approached the Supreme Court against this decision.
CJI laughed after seeing the bottle
As soon as the hearing in this case started, Pernod Company’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi requested the bench to allow him to bring the company’s product inside the court. As soon as he got permission, he brought two bottles of company liquor and kept them on his table. Seeing this unusual scene, CJI Chandrachud, who was sharing the bench with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, laughed out loud and asked Mukul Rohatgi, “You have brought bottles with you?” To this, Rohatgi replied in the affirmative and said that he has to show the similarity between the two products and explain how the trademark has been violated in this case. That’s why he did it.
Then the court gave this decision
Hearing this the CJI said, “The issue here is about trade dress. This aspect has been covered in one of my decisions in Bombay which involved the shape of the bottle.” After hearing Rohatgi’s arguments, the bench issued a notice and posted the hearing after two weeks, staying the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. After the notice was issued, Rohatgi asked the CJI whether he could take the bottles with him. The CJI smiled and said, “Yes please.”
What is the whole controversy?
In November last year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had rejected liquor company Pernod Ricard’s appeal to stop Indore-based JK Enterprises from manufacturing alcoholic beverages under the ‘London Pride’ trademark. Rikard had demanded action against JK Enterprises. The company had claimed in the court that JK Enterprises had copied the ‘Blender’s Pride’ trademark and the ‘Imperial Blue’ bottle. Rickard had accused JK Enterprises of using the ‘London Pride’ mark to deceive its customers.
Madhya Pradesh High Court had given this decision
The High Court had then said that the products of both the brands include premium or ultra-premium whiskey whose consumers are educated and discerning type. The bench had said in its order, “It can be assumed with reasonable certainty that most of the consumers of such products would be literate and would have a proper understanding of the difference between the bottles of Blenders Pride/Imperial Blue and London Pride.”
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