A bench led by Justice Yashwant Varma said that “although we are informed that during the pendency of the present appeal, the defendant (Tiwari) has made significant changes both in its logo and get up of products which are being marketed by it, in our considered opinion, these and other issues which arise would clearly merit consideration afresh by the learned single judge.”
The HC noted that the issue which required consideration was that of “dishonest adoption” by the erstwhile employee.
Mankind Pharma alleged that Tiwari, who was working with it as a marketing manager till January 2015, had incorporated a company under the name Mercykind Pharmaceuticals.
Contesting the use of the suffix “Kind” by Tiwari, the pharma company submitted that it had adopted ‘Mankind’ as a trademark in 1986, and holds as many as 157 trademarks with the suffix ‘Kind’. Besides, Mankind said it has revenues over Rs 4000 crore and has a turnover of Rs 7000 crore.
However, the single judge had in 2018 refused to grant any temporary injunction against Tiwari.
