Bombay High Court Addresses the Practice of Moving IPR Cases at the Eleventh Hour

Plex moved an urgent interim application at the last minute

An urgent interim application was moved by Plex Inc. on Thursday last week. The application requested an injunction against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Zee) from using the word ‘PLEX’ in its online movie channel service which was to be launched on Friday. Plex initiated a suit for passing off against zee and claimed damages for misleading the consumers to believe that Zee had tied up with Plex.

Justice GS Patel heard the matter in the absence of Justice KR Shriram.

Justice GS Patel denied to grant relief and made the following observations:

1. Plex had not registered its trademark with the Indian registry even when Zee had announced the launch of its new service, which was a month prior to moving Plex's application.
2. Consumers are not likely to be misled as the manner of providing services for Plex and ZEEPLEX was very different.
3. Plex had failed to establish its reputation, registrations and sales at least within India. He also noted that there is the much greater reputation and standing of Zee amongst subscribers across the length and the breadth of the country. 
4. Plex was unable to prove what injury will be caused to them as their user base in India and that its domestic sales were not able to show how Zee is acting in deceit to pass off its new channel as an association from Plex.

Ad-Interim relief not rejected on the ground of delay

On the issue of delay, Justice Patel opined that the plaintiff had enough notice but chose to move at the last minute.

"If something has happened in the last few days, then moving with pressing urgency is perfectly understandable; but not where a plaintiff indulges itself in taking time to bring suit and then seeks to impose on the court’s time to the unaccounted and unaccountable cost of others. I am letting it go this once, but will not be so minded in future," he added. 

He, however, also clarified that he was not rejecting ad-interim relief on the ground of delay. He clarified that the use of the word Plex is subject to further orders in the interim application. The order was only for the limited purpose of deciding on the plea for an ad-interim injunction.

The Court recorded that “Zee will not claim any equities arising from its use of the word or mark PLEX between now and the final hearing of the Interim Application.” 

Parties were granted leave to file appropriate proceedings

The Court also granted leave to Plex to amend the suit to which Zee sought time to reply. The Court granted leave to parties to file their appropriate proceedings and approach the assigned Bench.