A division bench of Bombay High Court has declined the plea filed by Kolkata based company Emami challenging July 6 order by single judge bench. The ruling restrained Emami from initiating any legal proceedings against HUL in context to the trademark use without giving a seven-day prior notice.
The bench comprising Justice RD Dhanuka and Justice VG Bisht has refused to intervene in the Hindustan Unilever Ltd-Emami row as the July 6 single bench order gave the petitioner liberty to move the single judge bench again if seeking any various in the order after issuing 2 days notice to the HUL.
Besides approaching Bombay High Court, Emami has also moved Calcutta High Court to restrain HUL from using the trademark “glow and handsome”. Emami claims that it has launched the trademark before Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
Following the revolutionary BLM protests across the globe, various companies are taking initiatives to make a contribution to support the cause. Recently HUL has announced to rename and rebrand its most popular products “Fair & Lovely” and “Fair and Handsome” to “Glow & Lovely” and “Glow and Handsome”. Emami claimed that it had announced the change week before the HUL did.
While a single judge bench was hearing the matter, noted that the ‘prima facie’ it did appear that HUL was the prior adopter of the mark, as it had filed its trademark application first in September 2018, and subsequently on 25 June 2020.
“The statements made by the defendant (Emami) do amount to a threat, however, whether they are unlawful or groundless, that is something that will have to be decided after hearing both the sides, ” stated the court on July 6 order.
The petition stated that the applications filed with Controller General of Patents Designs and Trade Marks, under the ministry of commerce and industry, for the change of women’s and men’s products, were rejected on 26 July 2019.
Similar applications were submitted by HUL on 17 June and 25 June respectively. The company made the announcement about the new trademarks on July 2 and obtained permission on July 3.
