The Single Bench of the Delhi High Court (the “Court”) in Tata SIA Airlines Limited vs. Vistara Buildtech LLP & Anr., CS (COMM) 116/2023, granted ex-parte interlocutory injunctive reliefs in favor of the Plaintiff and against the Defendants thereby preventing the Defendants from using the trade mark “VISTARA” both as a word and as part of any label/device marks.  

The Court granted the reliefs based on the following parameters:

·         ‘VISTARA’ is a coined word and has no etymological significance;

·         The Plaintiff is the prior user of the trade mark ‘VISTARA’ since 2015 in relation to commercial aviation industry and the Defendants as a partnership firm came into existence only in 2022;

·         Although, the Defendant’s trade mark is used in relation to commercial properties; the Plaintiff’s ‘VISTARA’ trade mark has been declared as a well-known trade mark by the Court in 2019 and thereby the Plaintiff’s ‘VISTARA’ trade mark is entitled for protection against non-competing services as per Section 29 (4) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

Remarks

The Court’s observations re-affirms the following principles:

(i)                That coined and/or fanciful words are accorded higher protection in the spectrum of distinctiveness;

(ii)              That date of first adoption and use has significance; &

(iii)           That a well-known trade mark is entitled for protection even for non-competing goods and/or services.

Authors: Nitin Abhishek

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