Ananta Shayan Kanoria v. Parag Pathak

I. A No. GA 1 of 2021 APOT No. 48 of 2021 with CS No. 44 of 2021

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

In appeal from its ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION (Commercial Division) Ananta Shayan Kanoria

Versus

Parag Pathak Before:

The Hon'ble Justice I. P. MUKERJI And The Hon'ble Justice MD. NIZAMUDDIN Date: 22nd March 2021 Appearance:

Mr. Rudraman Bhattacharya, Advocate Mr. Yash Vardhan Deora, Advocate Mr. Siddharth Das, Advocate for the appellant Mr. Ranjan Bachawat, Sr. Advocate Mr. Sayantan Basu, Advocate Mr. Tanmoy Roy, Advocate Mr. P. P. Chakrabarty, Advocate Mr. Abhiroop Dhar, Advocate for respondent The Court: This appeal from the interim order dated 5th March 2021 made by a learned single judge in a passing off action refusing to pass an order of injunction and instead directing the defendant/respondent to maintain monthly accounts of his sale in a suit for passing off, is formally admitted.

As the issue involved is very short, by consent of the learned counsel for the parties we heard out the appeal today dispensing with all formalities.

Since the respondent has already changed the name to "Curry Leaf", we find no ground to interfere with the impugned order.

Mr. Bhattacharya, learned advocate appearing for the appellant submits that his client at one point of time used to carry on business from the subject premises using the mark or name "Kurry Patta". If the respondent carries on business from the self-same premises using the mark "Curry Leaf", they would be deceiving the customers to believe that the business belong to the appellant.

Prima facie, we do not think that such deception is likely to be caused by use of the entirely different words "Curry Leaf". However, to obviate any such possibility we order that in a conspicuous part of the said premises the respondent will declare that they have no connection with "Kurry Patta".

Time to file the affidavit-in-opposition before the trial court is extended by two weeks from date. Affidavit-in-reply may be filed within one week thereafter.

Our observations are tentative. All points are kept open before the learned single judge.

The appeal (APOT 48 of 2021) and the connected application (IA No. GA 1 of 2021) are disposed of.

(I. P. MUKERJI, J.) (MD. NIZAMUDDIN, J.) R. Bose