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The Delhi High Court recently passed an order to stop the unauthorised selling of counterfeits of law books published by LexisNexis on Contract and Special Relief Acts, Interpretation of Statutes and the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC).
In an order passed on February 17, Justice Jyoti Singh said that an entity named Parth Law House and John Doe (unidentified defendants) were manufacturing and selling counterfeit textbooks with inferior quality and a hologram which could be easily wiped out by rubbing.
“Plaintiff has built formidable reputation and goodwill in the market and it needs no reiteration that by selling counterfeits Defendants are not only harming the reputation of the Plaintiff but also public interest, more particularly, of students and professionals, who are buying the counterfeit textbooks,” the Court said.
Therefore, it prohibited the selling of counterfeit copies of the following books:
Pollock & Mulla – The Indian Contract & Specific Relief Acts (17th Edition)
NS Bindra – Interpretation of Statutes (13th Edition)
Mulla – The Code of Civil Procedure (20th Edition)
Justice Singh passed the order after LexisNexis moved the Court. It argued that the counterfeit books were near-identical reproductions of the originals, bearing LexisNexis’ registered trademarks and copied text, but printed in inferior quality.
According to the plaint, the counterfeit editions featured holograms that could be wiped off by rubbing and QR codes that failed authentication checks, unlike the genuine editions, which allow verification via ISBN scanning on the publisher’s platform.
Finding a prima facie case of copyright and trademark infringement, the Court held that the balance of convenience lay in favour of LexisNexis. Therefore, it passed the ex-parte ad interim injunction order.
Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak with advocates Shoumendu Mukherji, Megha Sharma, Aniruddha Ghosh, Sidhi Pramodh Rayudu and Surabhi Tuli appeared for LexisNexis.