Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958

Section 56 — Wide Power of expunction for equitable right of waiver, delay, acquiescence or estoppel
HELD
"Shall" in the context of the Copyright Board, in contradistinction to "may" in section 56 in the relevant trade mark law in relation to the Registrar of Trade Marks or the High Court, as the case may be, creates a mandate upon the Copyright Board to proceed with the expunction where a case therefor is made out by the applicant. Use of "shall" in section 50 of the Copyright Act, 1957 is with a purpose including causing dilution in the rigorous use of equitable right of waiver, delay, acquiescence or estoppel. Application for the impugned registration was filed on 11.5.1999 and the registration thereof was granted on 1999. According to submission of the respondent, it was aware about the existence of mark Rolex as on 26.8.1991 when the petitioner wrote a letter to it about the infringement of the trade marks of the petitioner by the respondent. We believe that that is enough to conclude that the petitioner had interest in the subject matter of the impugned registration. Respondent had a statutory obligation to give a notice of its proposed application for registration which he failed to do.