Delhi High Court's interim relief to Magic Moments

Delhi High Court's interim relief to Magic Moments

The next hearing is scheduled for July 22

In a trademark infringement suit, the Delhi High Court has granted an interim injunction in favor of Radico Khaitan Limited, owners of liquor brand Magic Moments. It has restrained Sarao Distillery (OPC) Private Limited from selling or manufacturing alcohol under the name Evening Moment.

Deliberating upon the matter, Justice Prathiba M Singh held that the words Magic Moments and Evening Moments were deceptively similar. She said that 'Moment' was being used by the defendant, which could mislead the consumers to believe that the two products were connected.

"It can be easily perceived that the defendant's product is another addition to the plaintiff's product stable. Moreover, the use of the word 'Evening' is not sufficient to distinguish the two products due to the very nature of the product, which is usually consumed in the evening times. The focus would be on the word 'Moment', which is the dominant part of the impugned mark," the court held.

In its earlier order, the court had already granted an injunction in favor of the plaintiff where the defendants had been restrained from selling their liquor under the brand Evening Moment. However, it did not apply to the selling of whisky.

The counsel for the plaintiff argued that they were one of the largest manufacturers of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). Owing to a large number of sales and various registrations for the words Moments and Magic Moments, the mark deserved to be protected even with respect to a whisky brand.

The court noted that the records showed that the plaintiff had adopted the words Magic Moments in 1997. It launched gin and vodka products under the trademark in 2005 and 2006. Ever since, uninterruptedly, it had used the brand name and also launched other variants - Remix (2008), Verve (2012) and Electra (2015).

Granting an interim injunction in favor of the plaintiff, the court ruled, "The defendants and all others acting for or on their behalf, are restrained from using the mark Evening Moment or any other mark consisting of the word Moment/Moments in respect of any alcoholic beverages manufactured, sold or offered by sale."

Advocates Anirudh Bakhru, Ishani Chandra, Srijan Uppal, Abhishek Bhati and Yashasvi Gupta appeared on behalf of the plaintiffs.