Delhi HC Grants Interim Injunction In Favour Of Eastern Book Company

The Delhi High Court recently granted interim Injunction in favour of Eastern Book Company in a suit for infringement filed against Wave Choice Cover and others.

Bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Narula heard and granted interim relief in a suit concerning the violation of Plaintiffs' intellectual property rights through the sale of pirated/ counterfeit books sold under the Plaintiffs' mark/ name "EASTERN BOOK COMP ANY" and "EBC".

The Plaintiffs argued that the books published by them cater to students of law, legal practitioners, aspirants of various government exams as well as Judges, and are widely acclaimed as reliable sources for legal knowledge. In addition to their trademark rights, the Plaintiffs also asserted exclusive ownership of the copyright over the literary works entailed in the books published by them.

The Plaintiffs contended that Defendants were wrongfully benefitting from the sale of books which were counterfeit.

It was the case of the Plaintiffs that they had the exclusive right to publish the textbooks and the Defendants had no authority to either publish or reprint the same without Plaintiffs' consent.

The Court passed the following directions: -

1. Defendant No. 10 shall, within two weeks from today, hand over all the copies of respective counterfeit books of the Plaintiffs' original publications as detailed in paragraph No. 23.6 of this order to Plaintiffs on superdari on their undertaking to produce the same as and when further directions are issued in this regard.

2. Defendant No. 10 shall, within two weeks from today, file an affidavit disclosing the available details of Defendants No. 1 to 8, such as, their address, mobile numbers, email addresses, total statement of accounts, including all the sales made by Defendants No. 1 to 8 since the date the listings were posted, and GST details. A copy of the said documents shall also be furnished to the counsel for Plaintiffs.

3. Defendant No. 10 shall not release any payments to Defendants No. 1 to 8 in respect of the sales effected through their website in relation to the counterfeit products.

The Court also directed Local Commissioners to visit defendants' premises and conduct inspection.

Counsel for Plaintiffs: Mr. Samar Singh Kachwaha, Mr. Raghvendra Mohan, Mrs. Garima Bajaj, Mr. Kanav Agarwal, Mr. Kumar Karan, Mr. Shagun Agarwal, Mr. Shivansh Dwivedi and Mr. Dushyant Kishan Kaul, Advocates.