The Hindu Business Line : Carrefour wins trademark case in HC

Chennai, July 24 The Madras High Court has held that the France-based Carrefour, running a chain of retail outlets in France besides European, Asian and West Asian countries, has established itself as the legal owner of the registered trademark ‘CARREFOUR’. Hence, the public was likely to be deceived into thinking that products offered by others had a connection in the course of trade, to the former.

Mr Justice V. Ramasubramanian, who allowed applications from the French retailer praying for granting an interim injunction restraining the respondents — Mr V. Subburaman, Ms Ayesha Anjum, Mr S. Munir Ahmad and Carrefour House of Interiors, all based in Chennai — from using the trade mark ‘CARREFOUR’, ruled that the applicant would suffer irreparable injury if injunction was refused.

The firm claimed a right over the said trademark by virtue of its usefrom 1960 in France, where its first store was opened on April 8, 1960. It said it was the second largest in the world with a network of 7,000 stores and having a sales turnover of €94 billion. It had secured 2,500 registrations/applications for its trade mark in about 80 countries.

The firm contended that the respondents had no dispute about the fact that the word ‘CARREFOUR’ was a French word meaning ‘crossroad’. The respondents claimed user of the name only from 2000.

The respondents submitted, among other things, that the trademark ‘CARREFOUR’ could not be considered to have acquired the status of a “well known mark” and they had already applied for the registration of the trademark under application dated 21-9-2001 in respect of furniture, and there had been no opposition from anyone.

They had come to use the trademark as a result of ‘honest adoption’ and that therefore, the applicant was not entitled to prevent them from using it.

The Judge held that the vested rights of a prior user of a trademark were protected by Section 34 of Trade Marks Act, 1999 from interference by a registered subsequent user.

Registration of trade name ‘CARREFOUR’ secured by the applicant in India dated back to January 1995. The respondents started adopting the mark only in July 2000. Hence, they had failed to pass the test of “honesty in adoption”.

In view of overwhelming material, the applicant had established a prima facie case.

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