PhonePe withdraws injunction plea against BharatPe; to go for full trial
Premium- PhonePe had filed a commercial lawsuit in Delhi High Court against BharatPe, alleging violation of its trademark and claiming exclusivity on the ‘Pe’ suffix in May 2019
Bengaluru: Digital payments company PhonePe has withdrawn its injunction plea against BharatPe over the use of the suffix , as it prepares to go for full trial. The hearing on the matter is expected to be held in July.
After the Delhi High Court dismissed PhonePe’s interim injunction plea, heard by a single bench of C. Hari Shankar, in April, the company moved a division bench to seek relief on the matter.
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However, it withdrew its injunction plea, after moving the division bench of Delhi High Court, thereafter.
As per the latest court order dated June 1, PhonePe’s senior counsel told the division bench that it does not wish to proceed with its injunction plea any further.
“After some arguments, learned senior counsel for the appellant (PhonePe) does not wish to press the present appeal. He, however, prays for the expeditious disposal of the suit. Keeping in view of the aforesaid limited prayer, we dispose of the present appeal by directing the learned Single Judge to expedite the hearing and disposal of the suit. We further direct that none of the parties shall unnecessarily take an adjournment in the proceedings before the learned Single Judge," said the recent court order.
PhonePe had filed a commercial lawsuit in Delhi High Court against BharatPe, alleging violation of its trademark and claiming exclusivity on the ‘Pe’ suffix in May 2019.
The company was also seeking an injunction against BharatPe over the use of ‘Pe’ in its brand and app names. Both firms have been arguing against the use of ‘Pe’ since 2018, even before the official lawsuit.
“We had filed for an injunction almost two years ago, to get temporary reprieve until the main trial started. Given that the injunction ruling took two year to come, it had partially lost its meaning in time anyways because BharatPe continues to actively plagiarize our mark 'Pe'. Our main recourse was always going to be decided in trial," said a PhonePe spokesperson, while replying to Mint’s queries on the matter.
While dismissing the injunction plea on 15 April, the single bench said that there was insufficient evidence to conclusively say that the ‘Pe’ suffix would be “indelibly associated" in the public consciousness with PhonePe’s services.
Mint has seen a copy of the latest court order on the matter.
“I had hoped that after last month’s well-reasoned judgment by Hon’ble Delhi High Court, Sameer Nigam would have seen the writing on the wall and not proceeded with this futile litigation but he still chose to file an appeal which was rightfully not entertained by the Division Bench. They were ultimately forced to withdraw the appeal petition bringing down curtains to the injunction proceedings once for all. We at BharatPe have bigger battles to fight on the neo-banking side," said Ashneer Grover, co-founder and chief executive officer at BharatPe.
Grover added that it would have been a travesty of justice if foreign owned PhonePe would have been allowed to monopolise the Hindi word ‘Pe’. He further added that it is no secret that PhonePe enjoys its leadership position on Unified Payments Interface consumer side because of BharatPe’s leadership position in offline UPI QRs.
BharatPe team was represented by senior advocates in the hearing before the division bench of Delhi High Court, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Rajiv Nayar, along with Mohit Goel and Sidhant Goel, Partners at Sim & San Attorneys at Law.
While PhonePe was represented by senior advocate Jayant Mehta along with other advisers.
“We are confident that we will win the main trial, and that the court will uphold our position. So, there is no question of PhonePe requesting a settlement," said a PhonePe spokesperson to Mint’s queries.
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