Britannia Ltd vs ITC Ltd was held on 6 September, 2016 under the judgement of Honourable Justice S. Muralidhar<\/p>\n
Britannia\u2019s claim<\/p>\n
A case of trademark infringement brought by Britannia based on its registration of \u2018Nutri Choice\u2019 as a trademark and its packaging.
\nBritannia argued that the overall appearance of ITC\u2019s packing was deceptively similar to Britannia\u2019s products. In the case of \u2018Nutri Choice Digestive\u2019 and \u2018Sunfeast Farmlite 5-Seed Digestive\u2019, it was argued that:<\/p>\n
1.\tBoth packs use a red and yellow combination of colours, with yellow on the left and red on the right;
\n2.\tBoth packs use the words \u2018digestive hi-fibre\u2019, below the brand name;
\n3.\tBoth packs depict the picture of a biscuit on the right side of the package with a photograph of sheaves of wheat below the biscuits; and
\n4.\tBoth packs have the prominent word on the left side of the package (\u2018Nutri Choice\u2019 in the case of Britannia and \u20185-Seed Digestive\u2019 in the case of ITC) and are printed on a white background.
\nAs biscuits are stocked together in shops, there is a clear aspect of \u2018initial interest confusion\u2019. <\/p>\n
ITC\u2019s reply<\/p>\n
In reply, ITC noted that the rivals\u2019 packaging is not similar considering Britannia\u2019s pack contained two colours \u2013 red and yellow \u2013 whereas, ITC\u2019s pack contained red, yellow and saffron. It also stated that yellow was the predominant colour in Britannia\u2019s pack, whereas, red was the predominant colour in ITC\u2019s pack.
\nITC stated that the brand name of ITC, \u2018Sunfeast Farm lite Digestive\u2019 is predominantly displayed on the biscuits, itself, and that etching the brand name on the body of the biscuits is a common industry practice. It would serve to discredit the allegation of deceptive similarity as rival brand names are entirely different. <\/p>\n
ITC also argued that Britannia does not have registration for yellow and red colours. Moreover, that the use of the word \u2018hi-fibre\u2019 is a common industry practice. It emphasises nutritional value, manner of use of the word and representation on the rivals\u2019 packaging are also different. <\/p>\n
Judgement<\/p>\n
The High Court, after considering the pleadings, arguments ruled in favour of ITC.
\nThe test in the case of infringement or passing off is that of confusing or deceptive similarity. The court noted different brands of the biscuit and the company manufacturing them are prominently displayed on the pack of Britannia and ITC.<\/p>\n
As the names of the two biscuits and their brands are different and prominently displayed in different colours on the packing, the allegation of copying of essential features and the possibility of confusion will not sustain. Moreover, sheaves of wheat are not unique either, as they are seen in other packs of digestive biscuits as well. Thus, prima facie, it cannot be said ITC has copied the essential features and thereby infringed or passed off their products as that of Britannia.<\/p>\n
Given the above, the court refused to grant an injunction in favour of Britannia and dismissed the application. The court\u2019s following observation may, however not go down well in a fiercely competitive industry: \u201cA conscious attempt at copying, however, by itself does not constitute either infringement or passing off. The matter has, in either case, to be examined from the point of view of the customer of average intelligence and imperfect recollection. Unless such a consumer is liable to get confused or deceived, howsoever, questionable the intentions of the defendants may be, no case of infringement or passing off can be said to exist\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reference: Managing IP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Britannia Ltd vs ITC Ltd was held on 6 September, 2016 under the judgement of Honourable Justice S. Muralidhar Britannia\u2019s claim A case of trademark infringement brought by Britannia based on its registration of \u2018Nutri Choice\u2019 as a trademark and its packaging. Britannia argued that the overall appearance of ITC\u2019s packing was deceptively similar to… Continue reading Britannia Ltd vs ITC Ltd<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1693,1696,1694,1695,117,1579],"class_list":["post-16633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-law","tag-britannia","tag-cas","tag-civil","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/100307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16650,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions\/16650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sachdevajk.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}