1983 (9) TMI 270 - SC - Indian Laws

Legal standing for trade mark complaint clarified by Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court held that the complainant, despite not being the registered owner of the trade mark but a dealer and constituted attorney, had legal ... Whether the complainant satisfies the eligibility criteria? Held that:- In the absence of a specific qualification, if the person complaining has a subsisting interest in the protection of the registered trade mark, his complaint cannot be rejected on the ground that he had no cause of action nor sufficient subsisting interest to file the complaint. M/s Mangalore Ganesh Beedies Works, a partnership firm is the registered owner of trade marks, falsification and infringement of which is complained by the present complainant, who is not only a dealer in these beedies manufactured and sold by the registered owner of the trade marks, but he is also the constituted attorney of the owners of the registered trade mark. To say that the owner of the registered trade mark can alone file the complaint is contrary to the provisions of the statute and commonsense and reason. Therefore, the order of the learned Magistrate dismissing the complaint at the threshold on the ground that the present appellant has no cause of action to file the complaint is utterly unsustainable and must be quashed and set aside. Appeal allowed. Issues:1. Whether the complainant, who is not the registered owner of the trade mark but a dealer and constituted attorney, has the legal standing to file a complaint under Sections 78 and 79 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 and Section 420 of the IPC.2. Whether the Magistrate was correct in dismissing the complaint on the ground that the complainant lacked the necessary qualification to file the complaint.Analysis:1. The appellant, a dealer and constituted attorney of a partnership firm registered as the owner of certain trade marks, filed a complaint against the respondents for infringing the trade marks by using deceptively similar wrappers and labels. The Magistrate dismissed the complaint stating that the complainant lacked the necessary standing as he was not the registered owner of the trade mark. However, the Supreme Court held that under Sec. 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, anyone can set the criminal law in motion by filing a complaint of facts constituting an offence before a Magistrate entitled to take cognizance. The Court emphasized that the qualification of the complainant to file a complaint is not relevant unless a special statute prescribes specific eligibility criteria. In this case, since the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act did not specify any particular qualification for filing a complaint under Sections 78 and 79, the complainant had the legal standing to initiate the proceedings.2. The Magistrate's dismissal of the complaint based on the complainant's lack of ownership of the trade mark was deemed erroneous by the Supreme Court. The Court highlighted that in the absence of a specific qualification requirement, if the person complaining has a subsisting interest in the protection of the registered trade mark, the complaint cannot be rejected solely on the grounds of lack of ownership. The appellant, being a dealer in the beedies and the constituted attorney of the registered trade mark owners, had a legitimate interest in preventing the infringement of the trade marks. Therefore, the Magistrate's decision to dismiss the complaint and the High Court's dismissal of the revision petition were set aside, and the matter was remanded to the Magistrate to proceed further according to law.In conclusion, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal, emphasizing that the complainant, despite not being the registered owner of the trade mark, had the legal standing to file the complaint under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act. The Court clarified that in the absence of specific eligibility criteria in the statute, a person with a subsisting interest in the protection of the trade mark can initiate legal proceedings against infringement.