The Delhi High Court today sought response of a city-based restro-bar chain and its owner on Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir's plea seeking to restrain them from using his name as their tagline.
The plea, which was earlier rejected by a single judge bench, came up before the division bench of Justices G S Sistani and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal which issued notice to DAP and Co which runs two pubs -- Ghungroo and Hawalat -- in Punjabi Bagh area of west Delhi.
Interestingly, the name of the owner of the pubs is also Gautam Gambhir, who was also issued notice for March 20.
The single judge bench had on December 13 last year dismissed the plea of the cricketer saying, "Nothing has emerged on record if there was any loss to the goodwill of the plaintiff (cricketer) in his field i.e. Cricket because of running of the restaurants by the defendant (pub owner) with the tag line in his own name," the single judge said.
In his plea challenging this order, cricketer Gambhir through senior advocate Rajiv Nayar contended that the name Gautam Gambhir, upon being mentioned, immediately gets associated with the cricketer only and no one else.
He said the cricketer discovered in November 2016 that the owner was running the restaurants with the tag line 'by Gautam Gambhir' while the cricketer has absolutely no connection with the said restaurants.
The plea said the tagline tends to create confusion in the mind of the public regarding the fact that the plaintiff has some association or connection with the said restaurants.
The restro-bar chain contended before the single judge that the tagline 'by Gautam Gambhir' was used in connection with the pubs as it was also the owner's name.
He contended that the first restaurant under the name 'Blu Wavs by Gautam Gambhir' was started in Rajouri Garden here and again in 2015 another restaurant under the name 'Play Reloaded by Gautam Gambhir' was opened in Rajouri Garden.
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