time of the trade mark “MANIKCHAND” and have filed the present suit alleging infringement of their trade mark and passing off of goods by the Defendants by the use of the mark “MALIKCHAND”, which is deceptively similar to the trade mark “MANIKCHAND”. It is the Plaintiffs' case that they are engaged in manufacture and marketing of diverse range of goods such as tea, packaged drinking water, chewing tobacco, pan masala, gutkha and mouth freshners, etc. and have adopted and used the trade mark “MANIKCHAND” for marketing their goods including chewing tobacco since the year 1961, the name “MANIKCHAND” being the middle name of Plaintiff No.1. (As of the date of the suit, as originally filed, the Plaintiffs' application for registration was pending before the Trade Mark Registry. During the pendency of the suit, the trade mark is registered in the name of the Plaintiffs.) The Plaintiffs submit that the trade mark “MANIKCHAND” has, by reason of its long and extensive user by the Plaintiffs, has come to be exclusively associated with their goods. The Plaintiffs' case originally was that the Defendants have been unauthorisedly using the mark “MALIKCHAND” for marketing similar goods and thereby passing off their goods as the goods of the Plaintiffs. After obtaining registration of their trade mark “MANIKCHAND”, the Plaintiffs have amended the suit and included the relief against infringement of their registered trade mark.
