Home Case Index All Cases Insolvency and Bankruptcy Insolvency and Bankruptcy + HC Insolvency and Bankruptcy - 2023 (6) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2023 (6) TMI 1009 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURTCIRP - assignment of trademark in favor of petitioner - Infringement of seven trademarks, having proprietary rights acquired through a deed of assignment - Refusal of grant an order of injunction restraining Duckbill from using the marks - serious allegation of fraud, misrepresentation and suppression of facts and cheating - HELD THAT:- There is every reason to believe that as a statutory functionary the liquidator acted regularly in the usual course of his duties and found fourteen registered trademarks in the name of the company. He found nothing in the records to suggest that out of those trademarks, seven had been transferred in 2017 - What is most significant is that these marks were assigned by the father-inlaw on behalf of the company to her daughter-in-law for only Rs. 7,000/- whereas about rupees 5 crores have been paid by Duckbill to purchase these marks. The purported deed of assignment dated 3rd April, 2017 was sought to be lodged with the Registrar on 18th January, 2022 for registering the assignment. This application to record this assignment was made by filling up a form RM-P issued by the Trademark registry. This form provides for an application for post registration changes in a trademark. In the garb of making this application Poulami Mukherjee tried to record with the registry that Duckbill had assigned the seven trademarks to her (see page 168 of the application CAN 2 of 2023) and managed to get the assignment registered on 14th June, 2022. Under Chapter V of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 the right of assignment and transmission is vested in the registered proprietor. In case of these seven marks, the registered proprietor was Duckbill, the custodian of whose assets was the liquidator. So the real proprietor was the liquidator - a deliberate attempt was made by Poulami and her father-in-law to divest Duckbill of its principal assets that is the trademarks and misappropriating them, by backdating a deed of assignment to 2017 and then filing it with the trademark registry five years later. This appeal is dismissed by vacating our interim order dated 24th January, 2023. The impugned judgment and order is affirmed by substituting therein the reasons in this judgment and order.
|