Vishnu and Company Trademarks Pvt. Ltd., proprietor of the well-known 'VIMAL' trademark used since 1986 for pan masala, gutkha, mouth fresheners including non-tobacco 'VIMAL ELAICHI', filed a commercial suit alleging that Smotect Private Limited and its directors, while promoting their smoking cessation product 'Smotect AZAADI', published Instagram videos in November 2025 that prominently displayed the plaintiff's 'VIMAL ELAICHI' label while portraying it as a harmful tobacco/gutkha product, thereby disparaging the plaintiff's brand, infringing its copyright in the artistic label, and damaging its reputation despite 'VIMAL ELAICHI' being a harmless mouth freshener not requiring statutory health warnings.
The plaintiff sought permanent and interim injunctions for trademark infringement, copyright infringement, disparagement, defamation and passing off. On 12.12.2025, after hearing the plaintiff ex parte and noting advance service on defendants, the Delhi High Court found a prima facie case of wrongful use of the label, misrepresentation of the product as tobacco-containing, copyright infringement and disparagement, held that balance of convenience favoured the plaintiff and irreparable harm would ensue without relief, and granted ex parte ad-interim injunction restraining use of the label or similar marks in advertisements, directed removal of specified impugned videos within 72 hours, permitted approach to Meta if not complied with, and listed the matter for 30.01.2026.
Exemption from pre-litigation mediation under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 is permissible in commercial suits seeking urgent interim relief: Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2024) 5 SCC 815 (Para 5).
Prima facie, depicting a competitor's non-tobacco mouth freshener product label in promotional videos while falsely portraying it as harmful tobacco/gutkha amounts to disparagement, defamation and damage to goodwill (Paras 25-28).
Use of a competitor's registered artistic label in advertisements without authorisation constitutes prima facie copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, 1957 (Para 28).
Ex parte ad-interim injunction justified where prima facie case, balance of convenience and irreparable injury are established in intellectual property disputes involving disparagement and infringement (Paras 29-31).
Case Title: Vishnu and Company Trademarks Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Smotect Private Limited & Ors.
Order Date: 12 December 2025
Case Number: CS(COMM) 1333/2025
Name of Court: High Court of Delhi at New Delhi
Name of Judge: Hon'ble Ms. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora
[Readers are advised not to treat this as substitute for legal advise as it may contain errors in perception, interpretation, and presentation]
[Written By: Advocate Ajay Amitabh Suman, IP Adjutor [Patent and Trademark Attorney], High Court of Delhi]
