TELCO loses trade mark battle against T-SERIES

Setting aside the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) order directing Super Cassettes Industries to remove the circle around the letter 'T' from its trade mark, the court said the electronics company's mark T-SERIES was structurally, stylistically and substantially different. "TELCO's claim that 'T' within the circle is the essential feature of its mark is a desperate one developed at progressive stages of this case. By directing Super Cassettes to remove the circle from the mark T-SERIES, the IPAB overlooked the above aspect."

"The registration granted to the TELCO of its composite mark did not give it any right to the exclusive use over the letter 'T' or over the letter 'T' within a circle," Justice S Muralidhar said. Affirming the order of the Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks (DR), which had allowed registration of Super Cassettes Industries trademark having encircled letter 'T', the court also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the government.

"There was no occasion for the IPAB to modify the order of the DR by directing Super Cassettes to remove a circle surrounding the letter 'T'. Consequently the impugned order of the IPAB is hereby set aside," the court said. The order was passed on the plea of Super Cassettes Industries challenging the order of the IPAB which had modified the DR's order and allowed TELCO to get the trade mark registered.

"There is no likelihood or confusion when one compares the trade mark T-SERIES of Super Cassettes, which makes no use of the word TATA, with that of TELCO's marks as a whole," the court said. Rejecting the plea of TATA that the word 'T' in circle was deceptively similar to its trademark, the court said if the TELCO's competing mark was compared with that of Super Cassettes, it was obvious that the Cassettes' company was not using the word 'TATA' which formed a significant part of TELCO's mark.

"It is the word TATA that gets immediately associated with products emanating from the house of the Tatas and not either the letter 'T' or the depiction of letter 'T' in a circle per se," it said. The DR had allowed the registration in 1995 after finding the Super Cassettes mark different from that of TELCO.