Establishing jurisdiction for suits against website owners

In Lilly Icos LLC v Richie Laboratories Ltd Delhi High Court recently considered the question of how to justify a court’s jurisdiction in proceedings against the owners of a website.

Lilly Icos, an Indiana-based collaboration between Eli Lilly and Company and ICOS Corporation, was established in 1998 to develop, manufacture, promote and sell pharmaceutical preparations to treat erectile dysfunction. The active ingredient in the preparations was Tadalafil, patented in numerous countries by Lilly and its affiliates.

Lilly filed an application in the US in 1999 to register Cialis as its trademark for the preparations. The mark, with its distinctive suffix “-alis”, was clearly recognizable to the trade and the public. The tablets sold under the Cialis mark were an unusual almond shape, a unique light yellow colour, and were stamped with Lilly’s trademark C-20 in a distinctive script. This combination of elements was known as Cialis Tablet Trade Dress (CTTD). The drug was sold globally under the trademark Cialis and CTTD.

Vivek Vashi is the mainstay of the litigation department at Bharucha & Partners.