In a recent law suit filed by Remfry & Sagar on behalf of the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) – the global restaurant chain trading under the name and style ‘IHOP’ – the High Court of Delhi passed an inter-parte interim injunction order restraining the defendants from running their food outlet under the name of ‘IHOP Cake and Bake’.

Observing that the marks in question were identical and used in relation to similar services i.e. ‘restaurant services’, the court based its ruling on IHOP’s prior statutory and proprietary rights vesting in the mark IHOP, decades of extensive use and goodwill/reputation vesting therein. The court also of the view that it was not correct on the defendants’ part to evade an injunction by claiming prior use of the mark IHOP in Indian Territory, given that the adoption and use of the said mark was in bad faith. Accordingly, the defendants were directed to cease from using ‘IHOP’ as a trademark/name/website/domain name/email address and/or in any manner whatsoever in relation to their business/services/products.