The Bombay High Court on Monday in an interim order restrained a Pune-based eatery from using the name ‘Burger King’ till the hearing and disposal of the trademark infringement petition by US giant Burger King Corporation. The company filed an appeal in the high court in August, challenging an order passed by a Pune court the same month dismissing a suit alleging trademark infringement against the eponymous eatery. Burger King Corporation had also filed an application in the High Court, seeking an interim injunction from using the name ‘Burger King’ till the hearing and final disposal of its appeal against the Pune-based eatery’s owners – Anahita Irani and Shapoor Irani. Was. In August the HC extended an ad-interim order granted by the Pune court in January 2012, which had barred the eatery from using the name ‘Burger King’.
The HC had then begun hearing on the company’s interim application seeking an interim injunction pending the final hearing of its appeal against the Pune-based eatery. A division bench of Justices AS Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil, while passing its order on the interim application on Monday, said the appeal filed by the company should be heard and the entire evidence should be considered. “Till then the interim order (stopping the Pune-based eatery from using the name Burger King) needs to continue,” the HC said.
The bench expedited the hearing on the appeal and also directed both the appellant (Burger King) and the respondent (Pune-based eatery) to retain their financial transaction records and tax documents of the last 10 years till the disposal of the appeal. The fast-food company, in its lawsuit against the Pune-based eatery, sought a ban on using the name ‘Burger King’ as it was causing huge losses to the company and damaging its goodwill, business and reputation.
A Pune court had dismissed a 2011 suit filed by Burger King Corporation, which had said that the city-based eatery ‘Burger King’ had been operating since 1992, which was before the American burger giant opened shop in India. Was also earlier. The company’s lawyer Hiren Kamod had told the high court that the Pune court had erred in assuming that the eatery was using the ‘Burger King’ name in India long before the American company opened its first fast food joint here. “The plaintiff company currently has more than 400 Burger King joints in India, six of which are in Pune,” Kamod said.
