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The Chillington Tool Company, a global leader in manufacturing agricultural and farming tools, has been granted an enjoining order in the Commercial High Court of Colombo on 10 February 2023, against A.R. Trading, a wholesale supplier selling and distributing agricultural mamoties bearing marks identical to or confusingly similar to the trademarks owned by Chillington.
The Chillington Tool Company, first registered in England in 1892, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ralph Martindale & Company, a company registered in England since 1874, and engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural farming equipment and hand tools, distributed worldwide.
Chillington manufactures and distributes their wide range of farming tools under their internationally renowned brand names such as “Crocodile”, “Chillington”, “Martindale”, “Tiger”, and “Farmers Friend”, which are the popular choice across the world in the agricultural sector.
The ‘Crocodile’ mammoty in particular has a well-established goodwill in Sri Lanka, and is famously referred to as the “Kimbula udalla”.
The longstanding repute of the Chillington Crocodile brand in Sri Lanka dates back as far as 1908, when the Crocodile trademark was first registered in Sri Lanka, making it one of the oldest trademarks registered in the country with its presence established in Sri Lanka for well over a century.
Every product sold by Ralph Martindale and Chillington carries the guarantee of meeting stringent ISO 9001, ISO 9002, or ISO 9000-2015 world standards, making the brands synonymous with superior quality, reliability, and value for money.
The infringing party, Gnanaraja Selvakumari who is the owner and proprietor of A.R. Trading, while not an authorised dealer and/or distributor of Ralph Martindale or The Chillington Tool Company, was found to be engaged in the business of selling and/or distributing mammoties bearing the ‘Chillington Crocodile’ trademark in packaging visually identical to the genuine Chillington Crocodile product, without permission from the trademark owners.
Chillington made an application to the court stating that by using the name and marks owned by Chillington, the Defendant had made a material misrepresentation and misled both the retailers and the public to believe that the products of the Defendant are of the same quality and standard as those offered by Chillington, when they are not.
Further, Chillington in its complaint to court also claimed that use of their famous ‘Chillington Crocodile’ tradename and trademark by the Defendant is intentional and deliberate and that the Defendant is intent on trading on Chillington’s longstanding goodwill and reputation.
Commercial High Court Judge Sumith Perera granted an Enjoining Order against Gnanaraja Selvakumari restraining her, her servants and agents from continuing to deal in counterfeit Chillington trademark goods. The case will come up in Court again on the 24th of February 2023.
Ralph Martindale & Company Limited and The Chillington Tool Company Limited were represented in Court by Counsel Manoj Bandara AAL and Jinanji Senanayake AAL, instructed by Sudath Perera Associates.
