The Delhi High Court has granted an ex parte ad interim injunction in favour of Indian dairy brand Amul in a trademark infringement suit against Italian company Terre Primitive over the use of the mark ‘Amuleti’ to market the latter’s dairy products [Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. & Anr. v. Terre Primitive and Ors.].
Justice Mini Pushkarna found that Amul had demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and that if the same is not granted, Amul would suffer an irreparable loss.
“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 said in its September 9 order.
It thus restrained Terre Primitive from using the mark ‘Amuleti’ or any other mark which is identical or deceptively similar to Amul’s marks or logos in the market, e-commerce websites and on social media.
The Court has directed Terre to take down the listing of products bearing the Amuleti mark from its website. A direction was also issued to take down online links to ‘Amuleti’ products from Facebook and Instagram.
The Court further directed Terre to surrender all its goods, advertisement materials etc. that bore the Amuleti mark to Amul in order to destroy such materials.
Justice Mini PushkarnaJustice Mini Pushkarna
Amul’s trademark suit has sought a permanent and mandatory injunction against Terre Primitive, to permanently restrain the Italian company from using the mark Amuleti.
Amul argued that Terre, which is engaged in the business of selling cookies and biscuits, was using the mark Amuleti which was identical and deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s well-known mark ‘Amul’.
It was pointed out that products bearing the mark Amuleti were being sold, advertised, marketed and promoted through websites accessible within India.
Thus, it was argued that Terre had been targeting Indian customers and promoting its products to the consumers who reside within the Indian jurisdiction.
Amul also alleged that Terre’s mark Amuleti was structurally and visually similar to Amul’s mark, which could potentially cause confusion among consumers.
It further claimed that Terre even adopted a similar font and design so that it resembles Amul and leads consumers to believe that the two brands are related.
Amul added that such a blatant imitation and adoption of Amul’s mark by Terre cannot be ruled out as a mere coincidence as Amul had been using its trademark since 1958, whereas Terre was created in January 2020 and had only been using Amuleti since July, 2020.
Hence, Amul asserted that its a brazen case of passing-off by Terre.
Having considered these submissions, the Court granted interim relief to Amul by granting an ex parte (without hearing the other side) ad interim injunction in its favour.
The matter will be heard next on January 7, 2025.
Advocates Abhishek Singh, Elvin Joshy, J Amal Anand, Alisha Sharma and Shashwat Tyagi represented the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. which sells Amul products.
