Delhi High Court grants interim relief to Magic Moments; restrains use of mark 'Evening Moment'

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted interim injunction in favour of liquor brand 'Magic Moments,' restraining another company from selling or manufacturing alcohol under the name 'Evening Moment' [Radico Khaitan Limited v Sarao Distillery (OPC) Pvt. Ltd & Anr]. .Justice Prathiba M Singh held that that the words 'Magic Moments' and 'Evening Moment' are deceptively similar in view of the fact that the essential feature 'Moment' is being used in toto by the defendants, which could lead consumers to connect the two products. "It can be easily perceived that the Defendant’s product is another addition to the Plaintiff’s product-stable. Moreover, the use of the word ‘EVENING’ is not sufficient to distinguish the two products due to the very nature of the product which is usually consumed in evening times. The focus would be on the word ‘MOMENT’ which is the dominant part of the impugned mark," the single-judge held in the order uploaded on the High Court website on Thursday. .The Court was hearing a trademark infringement suit filed by Radico Khaitan Ltd, owners of Magic Moments, against Sarao Distillery (OPC) Pvt Ltd, which sold its liquor under the brand name Evening Moment. It was informed that the Court, in its order dated March 22, 2021, had already granted an injuction in favour of the plaintiff where the defendants had been restrained from selling their liquor under the brand 'Evening Moment'. The previous injunction, however, did not apply to selling of whisky, it was pointed out. .Counsel for the plaintiff argued that they are one of the largest manufacturers of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), and owing to the large amount of sales and various registration for the words ‘Moments’ and ‘Magic Moments’, the mark deserves to be protected even with respect to whisky..The High Court noted that a perusal of the record shows that the plaintiff adopted the word mark 'MAGIC MOMENTS' in the year 1997, and has launched Gin and Vodka products under the said trademark in the year 2005 and 2006, and has been using the it extensively and continuously in an uninterrupted manner. It launched many variants under the umbrella brand 'MAGIC MOMENTS', namely Remix (2008), Verve (2012) and Electra (2015), the Court took note. .An interim injunction was, therefore, granted in favour of the plaintiff. "...the defendants and all others acting for or on their behalf, are restrained from using the mark ‘EVENING MOMENT’ or any other mark consisting of the word ‘MOMENT/MOMENTS’ in respect of any alcoholic beverages manufactured, sold or offered by sale by them," the Court said. The case will now be considered on July 22, till when the interim injunctions would continue, the order specified. .Advocates Anirudh Bakhru, Ishani Chandra, Srijan Uppal, Abhishek Bhati and Yashasvi Gupta appeared for the plaintiffs, no one appeared for defendants. .[Read Order]