Between The Lines... August 2018

I. SUPREME COURT: IDENTICAL TRADEMARKS CAN BE REGISTERED IN THE SAME CLASS PROVIDED THE GOODS ARE DISSIMILAR

The Supreme Court in Nandhini Deluxe v. Karnataka Co-Operative Milk Producers Federation Limited (decided on July 26, 2018) held that that registration of similar or identical trademarks (NANDHINI v/s NANDINI) for the same class of goods is permissible so long as the goods per se are not similar or identical.

Facts

Karnataka Co-Operative Milk Producers Federation Limited ("Respondent"), which is a cooperative federation of the milk producers of Karnataka, adopted the mark 'NANDINI' in the year 1985 and under this brand name, it had been producing and selling milk and milk products. The Respondent registered the mark 'NANDINI' under Class 29 and Class 30. Nandhini Deluxe ("Appellant"), on the other hand, was in the business of running restaurants and it adopted the mark 'NANDHINI' for its restaurants in the year 1989 and applied for registration of the