- Court
- Madras High Court
- Date of judgment
- Judge
- P. Velmurugan C. S
- Outcome
- Suit decreed
Headnote
Suit under the Designs Act, 2000 decreed in part: permanent injunction and surrender of infringing materials granted, damages refused. On originality the Court held that the test under the Designs Act is limited to whether the registrant is the author of the design and whether it was published or registered before the application, and that designs built up over years of development, with gradual improvements made on customer feedback and market requirements, satisfy it. The registrations of design Nos.193288 to 193291 stood unchallenged and uncancelled, and the defendants' plea that the plaintiffs had themselves copied two United Kingdom manufacturers failed for want of any material to prove it. Under section 11(1) read with section 2(c) the sole right to exploit the designs vests in the registered proprietor and its authorised dealer, so no one else may deal in goods in violation of them, and section 22(1)(a) prohibits imitation without the licence or written consent of the registered proprietor, neither of which the defendants produced. Once the plaintiffs proved registration and ownership, the onus shifted to the defendants to show that their goods did not imitate the registered designs or that they held a licence, and they failed to discharge it. The first defendant, a former employee who had signed a secrecy agreement in 1993, was estopped from disputing its terms, and his plea that the agreement was invalid for want of stamping was untenable: he resigned in December 2002 and his mother-in-law's firm began dealing in the same goods in January 2003 with no manufacturing facilities or experience, which he conceded in cross-examination. Damages were refused because, although section 22 entitles a registered proprietor to sue for damages, no pecuniary loss was established.
Headnote by BRB Legal, written from the judgment: a summary for reference, not legal advice. Read the judgment itself before relying on it.