No monopoly over ‘Chur Chur Naan’, ‘Amritsari Chur Chur Naan’: HC

New Delhi, May 18

There cannot be any monopoly over the terms ‘Chur Chur Naan’ and ‘Amritsari Chur Chur Naan’ as they are “completely generic”, the Delhi High Court has held.

The court said the word ‘Chur Chur’ merely means “crushed” and ‘Chur Chur Naan’ means “crushed naan” and nothing more, and it is incapable of acquiring trademark signification.

Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the order while hearing a plea filed by Praveen Kumar Jain, the owner of an outlet in Paharganj here that sells naan and other food items. He had claimed exclusive rights on ‘Chur Chur Naan’ as he had the registration for it. Jain had filed the suit for alleged trademark infringement against another outlet.

The court said if registrations are wrongly granted or applied for such generic expressions, it cannot ignore it. It said these terms are used in normal conversational language and there cannot be any monopoly in respect of such an expression.

The counsel for the defendants, against whom the suit was filed, contended that no monopoly can be granted to such generic expressions as there were a large number of outlets which use the name ‘Chur Chur Naan’.

“The defendants have also shown on record that it is common practice in the trade for food outlets to use names such as Chandni Chowk Ke Mashoor, Dilli Ke Mashoor, Delhi Walo Ki Mashoor, etc.

“The same are very common to the trade and are used by a large number of parties. Thus, there cannot be any monopoly on the terms ‘Chur Chur Naan’ and ‘Amritsari Chur Chur Naan’ as the same are generic,” Justice Singh said.

The defendants, who were present in the court, agreed to change the name of their outlets to ‘Paharganj Seth Ke Mashoor Chur Chur Naan’ and ‘Paharganj Seth Ke Mashoor Amritsari Naan’. — PTI