National Insurance and Indemnity Corporation & Anr v. Virat Travels & Anr
In the High Court of Delhi
CS (Comm) 66/2020
Before Justice Prathiba M. Singh
Decided on April 06, 2022

Relevancy of the Case: Permanent injunction restraining the defendants from using a deceptively similar logo and website

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Trade Marks Act, 1999 (Section 2(1)(zg), 11(6), 11(7))

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The plaintiffs are two US-based firms that have approached the court for infringement of their trademark BOLTBUS, used for buses and bus-related services.
• They received the trademark registration in the United States in 2008 and obtained the same in India in 2016 for passenger bus transportation.
• The lightning bolt symbol within the letter O in the mark is the main feature of the plaintiffs’ logo. They also control the domain name boltbus.com. They extensively advertise their brand on different social media platforms.
• They discovered that the defendants, Virat Travels and the Bullet Bus, controlled websites bolttbus.com and bolttbus.in. Through these websites, they provide bus services. The defendants’ logo is nearly identical to the plaintiffs’ logo.
• On receiving the plaintiffs’ cease and desist notice, the defendants offered to change their name to VOLTBUS; however, the plaintiffs refused. Thereafter, they changed the name to BULLETBUS but continued to use the form and style of the plaintiffs’ logo.
• In a Facebook post, the defendants also claimed that “The Bullet Bus” was a member of the Bolt Bus family.
• Through this suit, the plaintiffs seek permanent injunction and damages for misusing their logo and falsely representing themselves.

Opinion of the Bench

• The defendants are fully aware of the institution and filing of the present suit. They have chosen not to appear before the court. This is a fit case for passing an ex-parte decree.
• The defendants have tried to exploit the market reputation of the plaintiffs.
• Further, creating a logo by keeping the same form and style as the plaintiff’s logo is unlawful and a breach of the plaintiffs’ trademark.

Final Decision

• The bench granted the permanent injunction.

Linet Christina Thomas, an undergraduate student at Lords Universal College of Law, and Ojasvi Gupta, an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, prepared this case summary during their internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2022.