HC restrains Emami from taking legal recourse against HUL without serving notice
In an interim relief to Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), the Bombay high court has restrained Emami Limited from initiating any legal proceedings against HUL without
In an interim relief to Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), the Bombay high court has restrained Emami Limited from initiating any legal proceedings against HUL without prior written notice of seven days. On Monday, HUL which recently announced that it was rebranding its fairness cream ‘Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Glow & Lovely’ and the same product for men would be called ‘Glow & Handsome’ approached the HC seeking a limited ad-interim relief against the statements by Emami that it would take legal recourse as it claimed to have trademark rights over the rebranded name used by HUL.
A bench of justice B P Colabawalla, while hearing the commercial intellectual property suit filed by HUL against Emami, was informed by advocate Hiren Kamod that HUL sought urgent hearing of the matter for the limited purpose that ‘the defendant (Emami) should give at least 7 clear days prior written notice to the plaintiff (HUL) before initiating any legal proceedings in any court or claiming any interim or ad-interim reliefs against the plaintiff as threatened in the statements issued/made on behalf of the defendant (Emami) against the plaintiff’s (HULs) use of the trade mark ‘Glow & Handsome’.
Kamod submitted that HUL had adopted the trademark ‘Fair & Lovely’ in 1975 and in 2006 adopted the trademark ‘Fair & Lovely, Men’ which was later changed to ‘Men’s Fair & Lovely’. HUL acquired the requisite trademarks too.
Kamod further stated that in September 2018 after thorough research in the Register of Trade Marks, HUL coined and adopted the trademarks ‘Glow & Lovely’ and ‘Glow & Handsome’. Multiclass applications for the same were filed with the Registrar of Trade Marks. After the Registrar raised an objection, HUL filed an appeal before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board. Kamod stated that the appeal is pending.
In June 2020, Kamod submitted that another fresh set of applications were made by HUL with the Registrar of Trade Marks to register the trademark labels ‘Glow & Lovely’ and ‘Glow & Handsome’ in classes 3 and 5 on proposed to be used basis. Following this, HUL on July 2 announced its decision to rebrand ‘Fair & Lovely’ to ‘Glow & Lovely’ and the men’s skin care range to ‘Glow & Handsome’.
Kamod stated that after the announcement was made, Emami issued statements threatening to adopt legal action against the plaintiff for violating the defendant’s alleged rights in its mark ‘Emami Glow and Handsome’. He further submitted that the statements issued by Emami are unjustifiable and groundless within the meaning of section 142 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and that their claim is false and misconceived.
In light of these submissions, Kamod said HUL was seeking limited ad interim relief that Emami should issue them seven days prior notice for any legal proceedings it was initiating against HUL.
After hearing the submissions, justice Colabawalla allowed the relief and directed Emami to serve seven days prior notice to HUL about any legal proceedings it intended to take with regards to the marks in dispute and posted the hearing of the suit on July 27.