The Delhi High Court has ruled in favour of the Italian dairy brand Amul in a trademark infringement suit against Italian company Terre Primitive.
The Italian firm had reportedly been using the mark ‘Amuleti’, closely following Amul’s well-known trademark, to market their cookies and chocolate-covered biscuits.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation filed the suit through counsel Abhishek Singh, who argued that Amul, a household name in India, had a global reputation and ranked 8th among the world’s top dairy organisations. Singh asserted that Terre Primitive had “blatantly” copied the script, style, and manner in which “Amul” was represented simply by adding the word “eti” to the name.
Amul highlighted that the imitation of Amul’s mark cannot be claimed to be a mere coincidence, as Amul had been using the mark since 1958, while Terre was only created in January 2020.
Justice Mini Pushkarna has now found that Amul had demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction. The Court granted an ex parte (without hearing the other side) ad interim injunction in Amul favour.
On September 9, the Court declared:
“In the above said circumstances, the plaintiffs have demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and, in case, no ex parte ad interim injunction is granted, the plaintiffs will suffer an irreparable loss. Further balance of convenience also lies in favor of the plaintiffs, and against the defendants.”
The Court has thus restricted Terre Primitive from using the mark ‘Amuleti’ or any other mark which is identical or similar to Amul’s marks or logos in e-c0mmerce, websites, social media and the market.
The Italian company was also ordered to surrender all its goods, advertisement materials, etc. that had the Amuleti mark to Amul so that it could destroy the materials.
The matter will be hard next on January 7 2025.
