Delhi High Court restrains NIC Natural Ice Cream from using trademark of Natural Ice Cream

The Delhi High Court recently passed an interim order restraining the makers of ‘NIC Natural Ice Creams’ from using the trademarks 'NATURALS’ after the famous ice cream brand Natural Ice Cream filed a suit for trademark infringement [Siddhant Ice Creams LLP & Ors. vs. Ameet Pahilani & Ors]..Single-judge Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order noting that Natural has made a prima facie case for grant of an ex-parte injunction, balance of convenience lies in their favour, and they will suffer irreparable loss if the order is not granted..“Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, Defendants No. 1 to 3 along with their subordinates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, family members, distributors, agents, franchisees, dealers, servants, and all other persons claiming through or under them or anyone who may be acting for and on their behalf, are restrained from using Plaintiffs’ marks ‘NATURAL’, ‘NATURALS’ or using ‘NIC Natural Ice Creams’, ‘NIC’, in any form or manner, including any marks identical or deceptively similar, or from adopting same colours, trade dress and packaging for their products so as to amount to passing off,” the Court said.The Court also restrained NIC from using the domain names ‘nicicecreams.com,’ ‘nicnaturalicecreams.com’ or any other domain name, email address or handle containing the mark NATURAL as a part. They cannot use ‘NATURAL’ or ‘NATURALS’ as metatags or purchasing the same as keywords under Google’s Adwords programme, it was ordered. .Natural ice cream is an Indian brand started in 1984 and now has over 140 franchises in 42 cities across the country.It approached the Court arguing that ‘NIC Natural Ice Creams’ started by a partner of one of its franchises was using the marks deceptively similar to Natural. .The Court was told that the defendants dishonestly registered marks incorporating the ‘NATURAL’ mark, which is an essential part of the plaintiff's trademark. It was stated that the defendants were aware that NIC was commonly used as an acronym for the Natural ice cream business.The mark also uses an identical shade of green colour as used by the plaintiffs which enhances the similarity and incorporates the word ‘NATURAL ICE CREAMS’ underneath the mark, the Court was told..Justice Singh issued summons on the suit and directed the defendants to file their written statements within 30 days.The case will be listed next before the joint registrar on December 21. .Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared for Natural's Ice Cream along with advocates Tejveer Singh Bhatia, Rohan Swarup, Kunal Vats, Tanya Arora, Utsav Mukherjee and Anjalika Arora.Advocate Aditya Gupta appeared for Google. .[Read order].Bombay High Court grants interim relief to NATURAL Ice Cream in Rs 150 crore trademark infringement suit