Case filed against hotel owners over trademark issue

Tirupur: The city police have registered a case against Tirupur Sree Annapoorna Hotel for misusing the registered trademark 'Sree Annapoorna'.

The FIR was registered under various sections in including the Trademarks Act, 1999, as the establishment failed to comply the court order of not using the brand name, which was registered by Coimbatore-based hotel chain Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar.

As per the complaint lodged by Jegan S Damodharasamy, executive director of the hotel chain, it has spent huge sum of money in advertising their brand. The brand is easily recognised by the people, the complaint said.

In Tirupur, Venkatesh Dheenadayalan and Vasanthi had started a hotel and named it Tirupur Sree Annapoorna Hotel. They used the trademark with the same font used by the hotel chain, said the complaint.

The Coimbatore-based hotel chain moved district principal sessions court on the issue. The district judge on April 26 granted an interim injunction that Tirupur Sree Annapoorna Hotel should not use the trademark 'Sree Annapoorna' but they did not comply the court order yet.

Following this, the hotel chain asked the police to take action against Tirupur hotel owners for continued use of the brand name. The city's central crime branch have booked them under various sections including 417, 467, 468, 469, and 471 of the IPC and 103(a), 104 of the Trademarks Act. tnn