Gujarat HC restrains Wim Plast from launching Symphony look-alike air coolers

Symphony welcomes the court order since launch of such imitative products could have led to direct or indirect impact on sales and brand image of the company

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday restrained Wim Plast Limited from launching air cooler models which are similar to registered designs of Ahmedabad-based Symphony Ltd models Winter, Sumo, Diet and Hicool.

"By way of ad-interim relief, the respondents (Cello) are restrained from marketing, selling, advertising and directly or indirectly dealing in air coolers which have the same design, shape, configuration and design identical to and/or imitation of the petitioner's (Symphony) designs," the Gujarat High Court order read.

According to Nrupesh Shah, executive director, Symphony Ltd., the company has around 140 IP rights even as it continues to invest in designs. "We welcome the court order since launch of such imitative products could have led to direct or indirect impact on sales and brand image of Symphony," Shah added.

In its order, the High Court maintained that "prima facie it appears that the contention that the first respondent-defendant (Wim Plast) has imitated the designs registered by the petitioner (Symphony) appears to be true".

It was pointed out to the High Court that Wim Plast's 'Mega Cool' model is more or less identical to Symphony's 'Winter' model, its 'Maxi Cool' model is similar to Symphony's 'Sumo' model, while another 'Ever Cool' model is identical to Symphony's 'Diet' model and 'Ultra Cool' model was a copy-cat of Symphony's 'Hi-Cool' model.

"Considering the fact that the defendant No.1 has so far only started advertising for marketing the product and has not commenced marketing the same as yet, having regard to the principles enunciated in the above-referred decisions of the Supreme Court, the court is of the view that the petitioner is entitled to the interlocutory remedy of restraining the first respondent - defendant from marketing the product manufactured by it," the order read.

On its part, Symphony will continue to take recourse to every legal option available to it to stop Wim Plast from launching, marketing, selling or advertising Cello air cooler models in India which are copy-cats of Symphony's range of air coolers.