Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea to stop release of Alia Bhatt’s ‘Jigra’ over alleged trademark infringement

The Supreme Court on Friday (October 18) refused to entertain a trademark infringement plea seeking to enjoin the use of the term ‘Jigra’ for the Alia Bhatt starrer film which has been released recently in theaters.

The bank of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing a challenge to the Rajasthan High Court’s order lifting a stay imposed by a commercial court, temporarily curbing the release of Alia Bhatt-starrer ‘Jigra’.

The main contention of the petitioner was that it had a trademark registration for the term ‘Jigra’ in the ‘field of education and entertainment’ which needed protection.

Senior Advocate AM Singhvi appearing for Dharma Productions, pointed out that there were no confusing similarities between the film ‘Jigra’ and the online learning center of the petitioner ‘Jigra’ as both belonged to different industrial domains, the former of the entertainment industry and the other of education. .

“How is it possible for a student of online classes to confuse Jigra movie with Jigra education?” Singhvi asked.

The petitioner’s lawyer responded, “In the online classes, there are videos that are created that are sent through that will have my name on them.”

However, the CJI intervened, pointing out that the videos would be about teaching lessons in mathematics, physics, etc., which had no relation to the film.

The Court observed that it was unwilling to entertain the matter, especially considering that the film has already been released.

The petitioner, however, sought to withdraw the petition as the High Court would soon hear the matter.

Although the court dismissed the petition as withdrawn, it nevertheless refused to issue any direction to the High Court to hear the matter only on merits as urged by the petitioner.

background

A Division Bench of the High Court consisting of Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Munnuri Laxman in his interim order of October 11 he said: “As an interim measure, the effect and execution of the impugned order dated 08.10.2024 passed by the Commercial Court No. 1, Jodhpur in Civil Misc. Application No. 60/2024 in the suit is stayed civil no. 100/2024, until the next date”.

The order was passed after the film’s producer, Dharma Productions, moved the high court challenging the trade court’s October 8 order, which had stayed the film’s release after the Defendant Bhallaram Choudhary alleged trademark infringement in relation to the title of the film. The Jodhpur Commercial Court had granted an interim injunction on the release of the film pending the disposal of the matter.

The court noted that final disposal of the stay request would require proper affidavit-supported allegations, but the same were yet to be completed.

In coming up with the threshold, the bank considered three parameters: “prima facie case; irreparable loss and balance of convenience,” and observed:

“This Court is prima facie satisfied that the name of the film in question would not infringe the trademark rights of the goods and services. Further, the appellant is not trading under the name ‘Jigra’ but is M /s. Dharma Production Private Limited, therefore, the goods and services provided by Dharma Production Private Limited cannot be said to be an infringement of trademark laws.”

Thereafter, the court suspended the operation of the suspension order of the commercial court. However, he said he is aware of the fact that if any kind of violation is found, the defendant could be granted the appropriate remedy: damages and monetary compensation. However, because of this, the court said, the appellant production company could not prevail against a “financial loss” due to the non-release of the film.

Case Details: BHALLARAM CHOUDHARY versus DHARMA PRODUCTION PRIVATE LIMITEDSLP(C) no. 24581/2024