Enlearn Education Private Limited (‘Enlearn’) is an unlisted private company that has set up a chain of schools across the Delhi NCR region dedicated to progressive and alternative forms of education. Even though Enlearn has been using the mark ‘HERITAGE’ for their schools since 1999, the earliest registration for its logo under no. 1276249 is of 2004. Enlearn is the registered proprietor of various derivatives of its mark registered under Classes 16 & 41 as listed below:
Sometime in January 2022, Enlearn came across a pre-school in Laxmi Nagar (Delhi) running under the brand name ‘
Indian Heritage School’, it was using the marks- HERITAGE, INDIAN HERITAGE SCHOOL, INDIAN HERITAGE WORLD SCHOOL and
in respect of identical services. Preliminary investigations revealed that it was being run by one ‘Children Mother’s Pride Education Society’ (Society), which had also filed for registration of a device mark ‘
’ in Class 41 in 2005, the status of which now stands abandoned.
Consequently, Enlearn approached the Delhi High Court and contended that the above cited marks used by the Society, especially ‘HERITAGE’ and the ‘Indian Heritage School’ were deceptively similar to its registered marks and therefore, could cause confusion amongst students and parents, who might be seeking admissions, on the presumption that this society-run school is also affiliated to Enlearn’s brand of ‘Heritage Experiential Learning School’
The Hon’ble Court, after hearing Enlearn’s arguments and perusing the webpage at
https://indianheritagepreschool.com, made a number of observations relevant to the trademark infringement scene in the country. The Court stated that while the mark ‘HERITAGE’ is a dictionary word and lacked distinctiveness; Enlearn is the prior user of the same in respect of education related services. The Court also observed that unlike Enlearn, which had been promoting their Heritage Group of schools online through social media and other websites, the extent of usage of the mark ‘HERITAGE’ by the society is limited to the words ‘
Indian Heritage World School’ in the logo ‘
’ and the URL of their webpage. Nevertheless, considering the exclusive nature of the matter which involved the important issue of running a pre-school for children, the Court held that a prima facie case for grant of interim relief was definitely made out.
Therefore, the Court directed that the society could not open any more schools under the mark ‘INDIAN HERITAGE’ OR ‘HERITAGE’. As far as the existing pre-school in Laxmi Nagar is concerned, it was directed that the usage of the said name with respect to this institution would be stopped with effect from 1st May, 2022. The order does not mention the reason as to why the injunction direction could not be implemented immediately, but it could be in due consideration of sparing the children any inconvenience to their study schedule. Notably, the Hon’ble Court did not decide to impose the liability of providing damages as was prayed for by Enlearn. The matter now stands listed on 18th April, 2022.
