NEW DELHI: A Delhi restaurateur has prevailed in a long-running trademark battle after the Saket district court barred a Bengaluru firm and its directors from using the name “Carnatic” for restaurant services and ordered the transfer of the disputed domain to the plaintiff.
The order, delivered on October 29 by district judge (commercial) Neelam Singh, permanently restrained Lemonpepper Hospitality Pvt Ltd—and its directors, officers, employees and affiliates—from using the mark for any restaurant-related activity, finding that the Bengaluru company’s use infringed the registered trademark of Delhi-based Carnatic Cafe, owned by restaurateur Pavan Jambagi.
“The defendants are permanently restrained from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, marketing, advertising or rendering any restaurant-related or allied services under the mark ‘CARNATIC’ or any other mark, logo, device or domain name identical with or deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s registered trademark “CARNATIC CAFE,” the court stated in its order.
The suit was instituted in April 2019; the court had earlier issued an ex-parte ad-interim injunction the same year. Lemonpepper failed to file its written statement within the prescribed time, and its defence was struck off on March 5, 2020, leaving the plaintiff’s claims largely unchallenged.
In November 2022, the defendants’ counsel filed an affidavit from managing director Sunil Kumar, asserting compliance with the injunction and undertaking not to use the name “carnatic” in the future.
The court, however, observed that the admission effectively confirmed the infringement and that the plaintiff’s case remained uncontroverted by evidence. The court also directed the defendants to transfer the domain name to the plaintiff within four weeks and awarded damages of Rs 50,000 alongside the costs of Rs 10,000 in favour of the plaintiff.