TEA BOARD, INDIA Vs. ITC LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two parties have locked horns over "Darjeeling" in Calcutta. The claimant asserts exclusivity over "Darjeeling" and insists that it may not be used by the Defendant without leave; the Defendant extols the virtues of the sights and sounds of the idyllic crucible of nature's bounty that answers by that lilting description and maintains that there is more to "Darjeeling" - its misty mornings, alluring snow caps in the distance and the innocence of its apple -cheeked children - than the tea that is grown thereabouts.

(2.) The Plaintiff is a statutory body set up under the Tea Act, 1953. The Plaintiff is the registered owner of the two sets of trade marks. The marks are word "Darjeeling" and a round device featuring the exquisite profile of a lady to the right holding the easily recognizable two -leaves -and -a -bud in her left hand and the word "Darjeeling" spelt out on the edge running from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock. The word and device marks are independently registered under the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act 1999 and the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

(3.) The Plaintiff's grievance here is in the Defendant naming a Sec. of its luxurious ITC Sonar Hotel in the city as the "Darjeeling Lounge." The Plaintiff has run its case at several levels: first claiming that the use of "Darjeeling" in the name of the exclusive lounge amounts to infringement of the Plaintiff's "Darjeeling" geographical indication mark and certification mark; that, at any rate, it amounts to passing -off; and, that it leads to dilution of the "Darjeeling" brand which is only the Plaintiff's to exploit.