SPP Pumps Limited (SPP Pumps Ltd.) is an UK based Company engaged in the manufacturing of centrifugal pumps and engineered pumping solutions from the last 140 years of experience. It is the owner and the registered proprietor of the mark ‘SPP PUMPS’, which was adopted in the year, 1961 and is an acronym of ‘Sigmund Pulsometer Pumps’. The said mark is a coined word/abbreviation. It has registration for the mark ‘SPP PUMPS’ in class 9 in India since 2021, SPP Pumps Ltd. have several trademark applications for the said mark in classes 37 and 7 which are pending registration.
Mr. Selvaraj Premkumar who runs a sole proprietary concern by the name - SP Parvathy Industries recently started using the mark ‘SPP PUMP’ for their products including screw pumps. For the said products, Mr. Premkumar had adopted the mark ‘SPP PUMP’ in different logo forms, the prominent one of which is as below:
Upon acquiring knowledge of the use of their mark in such a manner, SPP Pumps Ltd. served a cease-and-desist notice to Mr. Premkumar asking him to cease all use and advertising of products bearing the impugned mark ‘SPP PUMP’ as a trade mark, trade name, part of domain name, etc.
Since then, several letters were exchanged between SPP Pumps Ltd. and Mr. Premkumar. In response to one of the letters (dt. 11th January, 2022) sent on behalf of SPP Pumps Ltd., Mr. Premkumar had communicated that the said mark/name would soon be given up and initiatives towards the same would also be effected in due course after complying with the registration formalities in this regard. However, no timeline was indicated within which the changes were to be effected.
Consequently, the matter was finally taken to the Hon’ble Delhi High Court which realized that Mr. Premkumar was continuing to use the mark irrespective of his assurances to change it. When Mr. Premkumar suggested that a timeline of 3 to 4 months might be required to change the name and mark so as to enable rectification in the GST account, it was pointed out by the learned counsel for SPP Pumps Ltd., that the offending party was intending to use this time to get the mark ‘SPPI’ registered for itself in place on ‘SPP’.
The Hon’ble High Court took due cognizance of all such facts and came to the conclusion that even though the offending party was manufacturing a different category of pumps, both the parties were engaged in the same business and were using almost identical marks.
In view of the same, the Court opined that Mr. Premkumar was indeed infringing the rights of the aggrieved party in the mark ‘SPP PUMPS’ and hence needed to be restrained from using the mark ‘SPP’, ‘SPP PUMPS’, ‘SPPI’ ‘SPPI PUMPS’ or any other name or mark that is identical or deceptively similar to the impugned mark ‘SPP’ or ‘SPP PUMPS’ in respect of pumps or any other cognate and allied goods.
However, considering the genuine request on part of Mr. Premkumar, the Court allowed the offending party appropriate time till 30th September, 2022 to change the name of the impugned trademark. It was further directed that as and when Mr. Premkumar changes his name & mark, the communication of the same would be sent to the learned counsel for SPP Pumps Ltd., failing which the Court would enforce the injunction with effect from 1st October 2022, entitling SPP Pumps Ltd. to press for the relief of damages/ rendition of accounts.
