New Delhi: Declining the request for an injunction, the Delhi High Court earlier this week remarked that the famous fast-food chain Wow! Momo cannot claim a monopoly over the word ‘wow.’
In an oral observation Thursday, a single-judge bench of Justice Amit Bansal “noted that the word ‘wow’ is very commonly used in the restaurant space and could be too generic to be monopolised,” said a report by Bar and Bench. It added that the judge also “expressed reservations about injuncting a global chain from using its trade name”.
The judge was acting on a petition filed by the food chain seeking an injunction against Hong Kong-based burger joint Wow Burger. An injunction is an official order delivered by a court, oftentimes to prevent someone from doing something.
The Indian momo chain was seeking an order from the court directing Wow Burger to bring its operations in the country to a halt.
Declining Wow! Momo’s request for an injunction against the burger joint, Justice Bansal posted the matter for further hearing on 31 January next year. The court also sought a response from Wow Burger, which plans to open its stores in several cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bangalore. The order comes after Delhi HC, on several occasions previously, granted relief to Wow! Momo in cases involving infringement of trademark.
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Understanding law on trademark
A trademark is a symbol, design, word, or phrase that is used to identify a business’s goods or services. Once registered, a trademark owner can claim exclusive rights over the use of the trademark. These rights remain valid for 10 years. Section 25 of the Trademarks Act of 1999 says that the trademark—registered at the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks—can also be renewed periodically.
An infringement or violation occurs when a registered trademark is used in an unauthorised manner. It can also occur if a trademark is “deceptively similar”—either visually, structurally, or phonetically—to another or is being used for the same category of goods and services, leading to confusion in the minds of consumers.
When an infringement occurs, courts can step in to provide relief by restraining the use of another’s trademark through ad interim (temporary) or permanent injunctions. They can also order damages in favour of the one whose registered trademark has been infringed.
Five pending cases
Delhi HC has yet to make a decision in five cases filed by Wow! Momo against different businesses. Three of these are listed before Justice Bansal. These are the cases the momo chain has filed against Wow Burger, Wow Mom Foods, and Speciality Restaurants Limited. These cases are likely to be heard between the end of January and February next year.
Meanwhile, other intellectual property cases filed by Wow! Momo that await an outcome are against Wow Calcutta and Wow Delicious and are likely to go before the bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna.
Cases where temporary relief was granted
In several previous cases, the court has granted relief, albeit temporary, to the momo chain. For instance, just this year, on 22 March, Justice Anish Dayal restrained another food outlet from using ‘WOW PUNJABI’ after the momo chain filed a trademark infringement suit against it.
In its case, Wow! Momo’s alleged that Wow Punjabi adopted the essential and dominant feature of its trademark “WOW”. Furthermore, it also adopted an identical trade dress, including a yellow background, a similar font style, and the letter ‘O’ filled with red colour.
While listing the case for further hearing, the court said, “Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, an ex parte ad interim injunction is passed against defendant and accordingly, the defendant, and all others acting for and, on their behalf, are restrained from using, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in any goods or services under defendant’s trademark “WOW”/ “WOW PUNJABI”/ or any other trademark which is identical or deceptively similar to plaintiff’s registered trademark.”
Ex-parte orders are one-sided orders passed in the absence of one party, while an ad interim injunction provides temporary relief, often until the next date of hearing.
Prior to this, on 11 December 2023, Delhi HC restrained Gurgaon-based restaurant Wow! Delicious from using a mark deceptively similar to the one that belongs to WOW! Momo. Justice Pushkarna passed an ex parte ad interim injunction restraining Wow Delicious from using the plaintiff’s trademark. The matter has been listed for hearing on 15 April next year.
Similarly, Franchisebyte, a website that claims to sell various franchises, including that of Wow! Momo, was stopped by the court from using, advertising, or copying Wow! Momo’s trademark by a single-judge bench of Justice Hari Shankar in October last year.
However, the duration of this protection given by the court was only until the next date of hearing. The case has yet to be heard.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)