Nirmal Seeds Private Limited v. M/S Nirmal Seeds Corporation
Consent decree – Trade mark 'NIRMAL'
Case brief
What is this about?
Delhi High Court, CS(COMM) 616/2024, Justice Saurabh Banerjee, order dated 05.05.2025. Trade mark suit over 'NIRMAL' decreed by consent on joint application I.A. 11281/2025 under Order XXIII Rule 3 read with Section 151 CPC. Defendant acknowledged Plaintiff's proprietorship and prior user of NIRMAL marks and registrations, and undertook to refrain from manufacture, sale, advertising, dealing and registration of NIRMAL or deceptively similar marks (except certified products sourced from Plaintiff), and to surrender impugned materials for destruction/erasure with liberty to extract and sell raw material under a different mark. Plaintiff relinquished damages, rendition of accounts and costs. 50% court fee refund under Section 16 of the Court Fees Act, 1870. Suit and pending applications disposed of; no precedents discussed.
What did the court decide?
Consent decree: suit decreed in terms of settlement in para 3 of I.A. 11281/2025. Defendant acknowledges Plaintiff as proprietor and prior user of the 'NIRMAL' trade mark/name and its formative marks and the subsisting registrations; Defendant undertakes not to manufacture, market, sell, offer for sale, advertise or deal in any products (especially seeds, bio-organic products, bio-grown formulations, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides and allied/cognate goods) under the mark NIRMAL or any deceptively similar mark/logo unless sourced from the Plaintiff; not to use NIRMAL as part of any trademark, trade name or entity name; not to seek registration of NIRMAL or similar marks/logos; and to hand over all impugned materials, including those seized by the local commissioner, for destruction/erasure while being permitted to procure raw material from impugned packaged products and sell it in the open market under a different trademark/trade name/logo. Breach entitles Plaintiff to damages as prayed in the plaint; Plaintiff gives up prayers for damages, rendition of accounts of profit and costs. Registry directed to prepare a certificate of refund of 50% of court fees and to draw up the decree sheet; suit alongwith pending applications disposed of and date fixed cancelled.