Mumbai: Hindutsan Unilever Ltd (HUL) rebranding and renaming of its popular product 'Fair & Lovely' and 'Men's fair & lovely' has landed in the Bombay High Court. The FMCG major has moved for an injunction against Emami Ltd as the latter was threatening legal action on trademark violations.
HUL in its petition had sought that it should be given at least seven days notice before Emami initiates any legal proceedings on trademark. The Bombay High Court granted this interim relief.
HUL termed Emami's threats of legal action as groundless, as the former is prior adopted and user of the trademark. Whereas Emami had been threatening legal recourse as it had launched 'Glow & Handsome' digitally one week before HUL had announced the name change.
On 2 July HUL had decided to rename its long standing products as 'glow & lovely' and 'glow & handsome' as a way to project a more inclusive vision of positive beauty. 'Men's fair and lovely ' cream targeted towards men was launched in 2006.
HUL in its petition claimed that it had applied for trademark of the names with the Controller General of Patents Design & Trade Marks, under the ministry of commerce and industry, in September and October 2018. The petition for the name was denied on 26 July 2019.
The company reapplied for these names on 17 June and 25 June, 2020 respectively. The announcement was made on 2 July for the name change and permission to sell the product under the new name came on 3 July, said HUL in the Bombay High Court order.
Where as Emami had made trademark applications on after these dates and the company has so far not launched any product under these names so far, HUL added.
The court after hearing preliminary arguments observed that "prima facie" it does appear that HUL was the prior adopter of the mark as it had filed its trade mark 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," the court said.
It further directed Emami to give HUL seven days prior written notice before initiating legal proceedings against it and posted the matter for further hearing on 27 July.
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