Court quotes Gita, American poets in trademark case

New Delhi: While deciding a trademark infringement suit filed by TTK Prestige Ltd, engaged in the business of manufacturing, marketing and sale of kitchen appliances, against an online retail platform, a

court

has quoted from the Bhagavad

Gita

to American

poets

.

The suit has alleged that the online platform was selling its products under the trademark PRESTIGE and its logo without its consent. The court dismissed TTK’s claim of trademark infringement.

While giving a summary judgement in the suit, district judge Man Mohan Sharma said it was the duty of the court to show an exit door to a litigation without following the entire ritual of trial, if the same could be done within four corners of the law.

The court quoted a poem by

American

poet Shel Silverstein:

“Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout

Would not take the garbage out!...

Poor Sarah met an awful fate,

That I cannot now relate

Because the hour is much too late.

But children, remember Sarah Stout

And always take the garbage out!”

The provision of summary judgement gives a right to any party to a commercial dispute under Commercial Courts Act, 2015 to get a claim decided in its favour without going through the process of recording the oral evidence. It is an effective tool for deciding cases where it can be demonstrated that a trial is unnecessary.

Undertaking the task of considering a

case

or a claim for a summary judgement is indeed a task that must evaluate a host of factors, the court said. It observed that the situation could be aptly described by referring to a verse of the Bhagvad Gita, which means logic for an action must be known, so also the logic for inaction, and that the logic for a prohibited action must also be known, therefore the practice of karma is profound.

“The plaintiff has no real prospect of succeeding on this claim of inducement of breach of contract and there is no compelling reason for this claim to proceed to trial. Any oral evidence...would only be a superfluous exercise. No evidence, which is contrary to the pleadings, can be allowed to be adduced. Thus, contemplating that by some iota of evidence the tables may turn is nothing but wishful thinking without any legal basis,” it said.

The judge then quoted from the poem “One Times One Is Eight”, written by American poet Ogden Nash.

“Either old magic or new math

Into our house has beat a path.

How else could Einstein or Diogenes

Explain an exploit of our progeny’s?

While at the table with his ilk

A child upsets a glass of milk.

The glass held half a pint when filled,

And half a gallon when it spilled.”