Believe it or not, but the international hospitality group Hilton International Corporation of the Hilton Hotels fame cannot carry on business in India (Conrad Hilton has a joint venture with DLF),owing to the outcome of a pending trademark suit in Sirohi District Court in Rajasthan,as the Hindustan Times reports.
The facts of this ‘spicy’ suit relate to the petitioners claiming that Hilltone Hotels, situated in Mount Abu is registered under the Companies Act,1956 and therefore Hilton International should be restrained from carrying out business in India by using a “deceptively similar trademark.”
Rejecting the contention of the defendants who stated that the domestic firm had adopted its name and trademark for the purposes of deriving benefits of fame and reputation, the rather astonishing Order of
Additional District Judge Narinder Singh Dadda stated:
“The defendant, in any state of India, may not use the registered trademark Hotel Hilltone of the plaintiff or any kind of sabotage in it by using any kind of misleading logo and mark.It may not use and enjoy by causing confusion of being plaintiff’s hotel and in collaboration with any other Indian establishment may not carry on business of hotels and food items under such duplicate trade mark.The defendants (Hilton International Corporation and Hilton International) are restrained by permanent injunction that they not give the threat to the plaintiff to use the name of Hotel Hilltone and the defendant may not create any obstruction of any kind in the manufacturing and sale of the food items to be manufactured by the plaintiff under the registered trademark.”
In the opinion of the Judge, use of such misleading logo and mark had the potential to cause confusion among general public.
I tired to get copy of the Order but couldnot locate it.
Goodness Heavens!!…the mark in the name of Hilton Hotels exists even before the Companies Act came into being.
Astonishing indeed. Shayonee it would be really interesting to see the reasoning adopted by the Learned Judge to turn the TM law on its head. Could you try and post a link to the judgment itself?
Thanks,
Rajiv
what about the trans-boundary reputation of Hilton International..?
and the concept of well known marks under Trademark Law of India. Judge is gettign conciously biased or what ..??
@Rajiv : I tried to look for the Order but I haven’t been able to get hold of it yet.I will surely post a link if I do get it.
Of what I know,the case was appealed to the Raj HC(Jodhpur Bench)but the judgment doesnot explicitly state that Hilton can’t use the logo HILTON.
@Priyawansh:Yes,I agree.The Order of the Add.Judge is shocking.I will try to do a follow up with regards to transboundary reputation of such organizations and the law of well known trademarks.
I guess the judge should be given a free package from Hitlon International to understand what the international chain is all about!!
Well some much needed spicy flavour at the TM section of India!!!!Actually i think that the Judge may have been quite adventurist in his analysis of the plaintiffs case….
Without going to the merits of the dispute i would like to say that Hilton International has good case to defend as and when this goes to appeal , but if the Sessions Judge order is indeed upheld, then a terrotorial restriction may be applied with respect to its TM to be allowed to function outside rajasthan.