The Delhi High Court passed an interesting order pertaining to damages on July 13, 2007 in Disney Enterprises, Inc. & Anr. v. Jitendra Aggarwal & Ors.C. S. (OS) No. 175 of 2006 before the High Court of Delhi. The defendants wanted the matter settled by stating that they would not be able to pay Rs. 20, 00, 000 as damages but were willing to have an injunction against them and a token damage of Rs. 50, 000. The facts of this case are not that spicy, but the order of the judge to enforce the damage decree is singular.
The Court while passing the consent decree held that that the defendants were to pay Rs. 50, 000 within one week of passing of the order. Failure to do so would entail the defendant to pay damages of Rs. 1, 00,000 in the second week. If the defendant did not pay by three weeks, the plaintiff shall be entitled to the claimed damages of Rs. 20, 00,000. The defendant paid the damages of Rs. 50, 000 within the first week!
The singular feature of this decree is that the courts apart from creating an inbuilt mechanism for enforcement of its order has also shown the innovativeness and seriousness of awarding damages in trademark cases. This is a unique and first of its kind order where the damage amount increases exponentially.
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