The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the group in charge of the GI “Scotch Whisky” incorporated in the UK, won recently a constitutional writ (Scotch Whisky Association v J.K. Enterprises) before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Indore. The writ challenged an order passed by the Commercial Court in District Indore, which, inter-alia, held that SWA’s suit for infringement of its GI “Scotch Whisky”, against the defendant JK Enterprises (JKE), was maintainable only if it impleaded an ‘authorised user’ of the GI as a co-plaintiff.
This is the first court order in India that discusses the rights of registered proprietors of GIs to independently sue for GI infringement without impleading an authorized user.
