Interim Injunction against Melbourne on Trademarks lawsuit by Melwire

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Commercial High Court of Colombo in an Intellectual Property litigation instituted by Melwire Metal Ltd. issued notice of Interim Injunction against Defendant Melbourne Metal Ltd.

The High Court Judge Gamini Amarasekera also issued summons to the Defendant as well as the Director General of Intellectual Property returnable for 28 January.

The Plaintiff Melwire Metal claims itself as the renowned manufacturer of high quality safe and reliable reinforced steel bars in Sri Lanka instituted the legal action seeking a declaration that the registration of the trade marks ‘MLBN’ and ‘MELBN’ is null and void.

It also seeks an Interim Injunction restraining the Defendant from representing in any manner whatsoever that the trademarks and/or logos ‘MLBN’ and/or ‘MELBN’ have been granted registered trade mark status. 

Plaintiff claims it has been involved in major development projects well over 10 years in Sri Lanka namely Katunayake-Colombo expressway project, Mattala airport project, Hambantota and Oluvil harbour projects, the Kottawa to Kaduwela segment of the southern expressway project, Kotalawela Defence University project and Ruhunupura water scheme projects etc.

It states in 2014, it was made to understand that the Defendant company is attempting to pigy bag the goodwill and the trust earned by the Plaintiff and using the similar and/or identical named trademarks to mislead the Plaintiff’s customers.

S.A. Parathalingam PC with Nishkan Parathalingam and Niranjan Arulpragasam instructed by G.G. Arulpragasam appeared for the Plaintiff.