CHENNAI: In a reprieve to Patanjali Ayurved, the Madras high court has set aside an earlier order restraining the firm from using trademark 'Coronil' for its immunity booster product.
A division bench of Justice R Subbiah and Justice C Saravanan passed the order observing that there was no prima facie case of trademark infringement made out against Patanjali Ayurved.
On August 6, a single judge of the court passed an interim order restraining the firm from using the trademark on the plea moved by Arudra Engineering Private Limited, which claimed to be the owner of the trademark.
Allowing the appeal moved by Patanjali against the single judge order, the bench also set aside the 10 lakh fine imposed by the single judge for trademark infringement.
According to Arudra Engineering, since 1993, it owns the registered trademark 'CORONIL-92 B' for an acid inhibitor product used for industrial cleaning.
Refusing to accept the claim of Arudra Engineering, the bench said: "In this case, registration has been obtained by Arudra over the label with the words and alpha numeral Coronil 92B and Coronil' 213 SPL as a composite mark and not for the word 'Coronil', as envisaged under Section 15 of the Trade Marks Act."
Though 'Coronil' was an invented word, Arudra chose not to apply for the trademark registration of the word 'Coronil'. Arudra's registration was compromised by Arudra itself, when it was satisfied with registration of the composite labels. There was a defect in its birth which was never cured over a period of 27 years, the court said.