LAW Partnership and the owner of the original Sri Paandi restaurant in Brickfields known for its authentic South Indian cuisine, Kuala Lumpur, shared a deliciously victorious moment this week when the legitimate successor (Sri Paandi Restaurant Sdn Bhd) was recognised as the rightful owner of the goodwill in the business and proprietor of the brand name ‘SRI PAANDI’. The Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the earlier High Court decision and dismissed the appeal of the defendants.

This suit involved complex and novel issues relating to the law of intellectual property (IP) including the assignment of unregistered marks and goodwill of SRI PAANDI marks by the initial partners from the 1st Partnership, being Indian nationals and the discretion of the court in varying the registration date of a trade mark application.

The Court of Appeal decided that the deeds of assignments from the members of the original partnership including those by their heirs were valid after considering the succession laws in India, discretion under s.45 of the Trade Marks Act (TMA) 1976 was correctly exercised by the judge to move the effective date of the Sri Paandi registered trade marks and that goodwill in a dissolved partnership can still carry on so long as the business continues.

We are proud to be part of this winning moment for our client for whom we have fought our hardest and who believed in us, and who clearly need no longer curry favour with anyone to savour their rightful use of the popular SRI PAANDI name.

LAW Partnership's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Partner Suaran Sidhu and Associates Tan Hwee Yee and Pravind Suppiah represented the Sri Paandi restaurant in Brickfields in what was one of the longest and possibly the spiciest Intellectual Property (IP) trials in Malaysia.