James Fernando v. Officer In Charge, Scib, Negombo – sllr 1994 volume 3 page 035

The case between James Fernando (Plaintiff) and Officer-in-Charge, SCIB, Negombo (Defendant) addressed the alleged infringement of registered trademarks under section 117(2) and section 150 of the Code of Intellectual Property Act, No. 52 of 1979, focusing on the use of marks on beedi packaging, specifically ring labels and wrappers. It was held that trademark protection only extends to marks strictly conforming to the registered representation, and therefore, prosecution cannot succeed where there are significant deviations. The findings also established that even if marks differ in some details, the overall similarity may suffice to mislead the public if ordinary consumers are unlikely to conduct a careful inspection. This approach reaffirmed the principle that the likelihood of public d