Karnataka High Court M/S Map Systems vs M/S Informatic Publishing Limited on 17 April, 2023 1 DATED THIS THE 17th DAY OF APRIL, 2023 PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G. NARENDAR AND THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P.N.DESAI COMMERCIAL APPEAL NO.438 OF 2022 BETWEEN: 1 . M/S MAP SYSTEMS UPKAR CHAMBERS, 34/1, RASHTRIYA VIDYALAYA ROAD, BASAVANAGUDI, BENGALURU 560 004. REPRESENTED BY ITS MANAGER DR. C.S CHETHAN KUMAR. 2 . MR. SATISH PANDHARPURKAR RESIDING AT PE 307, MAGAN SILVER HILL APARTMENT, 1ST MAIN CHIKKALASANDRA, BENGALURU 560 061. 3 . MR. SOMASHEKHAR V. THALANGE RESIDING AT FLAT NO.35, VAKRATUND APARTMENT, B WING, K P NAGAR, DHANKWADI, PUNE 411 043. ... APPELLANTS (BY SRI. ARVIND KAMATH, SENIOR ADVOCATE FOR SRI. SHISHIR S. RAO, ADVOCATE) 2 AND: M/S INFORMATICS PUBLISHING LIMITED HAVING ITS OFFICES AT: NO.194, R.V ROAD, BASAVANAGUDI, BENGALURU 560 004. REPRESENTED BY ITS CEO MR. SANJAY GROVER. ... RESPONDENT (BY SRI. RAGHURAM CADAMBI AND SRI. MOHANKUMAR, ADVOCATES) THIS APPEAL IS FILED UNDER SECTION 13(1A) OF THE COMMERCIAL COURTS ACT, 2015 R/W ORDER XLIII RULE 1(R) AND SECTION 151 OF CPC, PRAYING TO A) SET ASIDE THE IMPUGNED ORDER DATED 30/08/2022 IN COM.O.S.NO.863/2022 ON THE FILES OF THE LXXXVII ADDITIONAL CITY CIVIL JUDGE AND SESSIONS JUDGE (EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED COMMERCIAL COURT AT BENGALURU) (CCH NO.88) AT BENGALURU AT ANNEXUREB, ON I.A.NO.1 AND 2 FILED BY THE RESPONDENT AND I.A.NO.3 FILED BY THE APPELLANT AND CONSEQUENTLY SET ASIDE THE IMPUGNED ORDER DATED 18/06/2022 IN COM.O.S.NO.863/2022 ON THE FILES OF THE LXXXVII ADDITIONAL CITY CIVIL JUDGE AND SESSIONS JUDGE (EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED COMMERCIAL COURT AT BENGALURU) (CCH NO.88) AT BENGALURU AT ANNEXUREA, WHEREBY THE TRIAL COURT GRANTED EXPARTE TEMPORARY INJUNCTION AS PRAYED FOR IA NOS. I AND II OF 2022 AGAINST THE DEFENDANTS/APPELLANTS TILL APPEARANCE OF THE DEFENDANTS/APPELLANTS AND ETC. THIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL HAVING BEEN HEARD AND RESERVED AND COMING ON FOR PRONOUNCEMENT, THIS DAY, P.N DESAI J., DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING: 3 JUDGMENT This appeal is filed under Section 13(1A) of The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 read with section XLIII and Rule 1(r) and Section 151 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as 'CPC' for short) challenging the impugned order passed by the LXXXVII Additional City Civil Judge and Sessions Judge (Exclusive Dedicated Commercial Court at Bengaluru) dated 30.08.2022 in Com. O.S. No. 863/2022 with a prayer to setaside said order and allow I.A.No.III filed by the appellants for vacating exparte temporary injunction order and dismiss I.A.Nos.I and II filed by the respondent/plaintiff wherein the Trial Court confirmed the exparte temporary injunction order against the appellants. 2. The appellants are the defendant Nos.1 to 3 and the respondent is the plaintiff before the Trial Court. They will be referred as such as per their respective rankings before the Trial Court for convenience in this appeal. 4 3. The Plaintiff instituted a suit in Com.O.S.No.863/2022 before the Commercial Court, Bengaluru for grant of relief of permanent injunction. 4. The brief contention of the plaintiff is that the plaintiff commenced its business in the year 1980, providing a range of librarycentric products and services centred around the hosting educational content, information search and delivery support, Journal subscriptions and library consultancies. The plaintiff had for several years also deployed a third party remote authentication solution EzProxy which is a web proxy server used by libraries to provide access to restrictedaccess websites from outside the library computer network that authenticate users by internet protocol address. The plaintiff is the owner of all intellectual property rights including copyright, patents, data base rights and rights in trade marks, knowhow, trade secret and confidential information etc., in respect of its propriety remote access solution 'RemotLog'. It allows libraries to provide remote and secure online access to subscribed/licenced electronic content from publishers hosted 5 on publisher's service. The defendant No.1 was working with plaintiff w.e.f. 01.12.2010 and defendant No.3 joined the service of holding company of plaintiff Informatics (India) Limited on 06.04.2012. The defendant No.1 was in discussion wi