Restraining an organisation from using the logo, the trademark and the name “Delhi Public School”, the Delhi High Court has imposed punitive damages of Rs.10 lakh on it to be paid to the Delhi Public School Society which runs a chain of schools with the same name across the country.
Justice V.K. Jain passed the order on a suit filed by the Society against D.P.S. Trust accusing the latter of misusing the name of its school ‘Delhi Public School’, the logo and the trademark to deceive people that the school run by it was affiliated to the original school.
Justice Jain passed an ex-parte order as the D.P.S. Trust failed to appear in the Court to defend itself.
“I.. pass a decree for recovery of Rs.10 lakh as punitive damages in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant,” Justice Jain said in his order.
Holding the defendant guilty of infringement of the trademark, logo and name of the school, Justice Jain said: “The defendant is running a school using the highly reputed brand name of ‘Delhi Public School’. The use of the name ‘Delhi Public School’, the word mark ‘DPS’ and the logo of the plaintiff is dishonest, actuated with greed to cash in on the brand equity which these names enjoy among the parents in this country.”
“On account of dishonest use of the trademark and logo of the plaintiff by the defendant, some innocent and gullible parents may admit their wards in the schools being run by the defendant and pay high fees and other charges which they would not pay for admission in an obscure school, under a mistaken belief that their child is studying in one of the schools being run by the plaintiff,” Justice Jain said.
“It is, therefore, necessary to award adequate punitive damages to the plaintiff so that such dishonest tendencies may be curbed and innocent parents are not trapped into admitting their wards in schools such as the school being run by the defendant,” Justice Jain added.
“For the reasons stated hereinabove, a decree for perpetual injunction with costs is hereby passed restraining the defendant from using the registered logo, registered trademark ‘DPS’ as well as the name ‘Delhi Public School’ of the plaintiff Society for running a school or providing education related services,” Justice Jain stated.
“The defendant is further restrained from offering, promoting or advertising any school or education related services under the above-referred name or trademark or any other name or trademark which is identical or deceptively similar to the trademarks ‘DPS’ and ‘Delhi Public School’ or the logo of the plaintiff Society,” Justice further stated.
