Kerala High Court to hear rejection of name under LLP Act, as proposed name contains words already registered under Trademark Act [Read Petition]

Kerala High Court - LLP Act - Trademark Act - Taxscan

The Kerala High Court will preside over the rejection of name under LLP Act, as the proposed name contains words already registered under the trademark Act.

The Petitioner, Kunhi Muhammed Etayattil is challenging order by which, the application made by the Petitioner, for the incorporation of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) under the name “Reef Wellness & Excellence LLP” has been rejected by the Registrar, on the ground that proposed name includes the word ‘Reef’, which is a trademark under class 5.

However, the petitioner claimed that in an earlier application, the Registrar had expressly approved the name “Reef Wellness& Excellence LLP” twice.

“Even under Section 28 of the Trademarks Act, a registration will grant exclusivity only for the class of goods or services in respect of which the trademark is used.  In other words, a registration under a particular class does not mean that the said name cannot be used by anyone else for any other class of goods and services,” the petition said.

The petitioner urged that the proposed activities of the LLP under incorporation was to provide services like running of wellness centres, healthcare related business, counselling centres, psychology based training and related activities, which are pure services.   

As per the Registrar, the proposed name includes “Reef” which is a trademark under class 5.  Class 5 is a class for goods, whereas the Petitioners activity falls in service class more specifically class 41.

The petition highlighted the fact that the Section 15 (2)(b) of the LLP Act has to be read down to mean that, the restriction can be made applicable only if the proposed name includesa  trade mark registered in the same class of goods or services in which the activity of the company is being carried out or is proposed to be carried out.  

Therefore, the petitioner prayed before the court to direct the Registrar to process the application form for incorporation of the LLP without raising any dispute on the proposed name “Reef Wellness & Excellence LLP”.

Advocates Shameem Ahmed and Cyriac Tom appeared for the petitioners.

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