The Delhi High Court has, recently, refused the grant of interim relief to Lotus Herbals Pvt Ltd. (“Plaintiff”) against use of the mark the LOTUS SPLASH name and logo by DPKA Universal Consumer Venture Pvt. Ltd. (the company behind Bollywood celebrity, Deepika Padukone’s self-care brand 82◦E and “Defendant”).
It was the Plaintiff’s case that the Defendant’s use of LOTUS SPLASH name and logo, infringes the Plaintiff’s rights in the LOTUS mark for beauty products. The Plaintiff also argued that since the Defendant had applied for registration of all its products, i.e., ASHWAGANDHA BOUNCE, PATCHOULI GLOW, etc., with/without the brand name 82◦E, it cannot claim that it is not using the product name LOTUS SPLASH in a trade mark sense. The Plaintiff also submitted that from an examination of the Defendant’s bottle, it is evident that LOTUS SPLASH is used as a trade mark, and the marque brand 82◦E is relegated inconsequentially at the base of the bottle.
The court observed that since the entire mark LOTUS is a part of the Defendant’s mark LOTUS SPLASH, and both the marks are used for cosmetic preparations, there a likelihood of confusion and a prima facie case of infringement exists. The Court, however, considered the Defendant’s defence that since the LOTUS SPLASH product contained lotus flower extract as a key ingredient, the name clearly indicates the “characteristic of the product”, and thus would not constitute infringement of the Plaintiff’s LOTUS mark. The court also held that the Defendant’s use of the LOTUS SPLASH mark also does not constitute passing off, as the products are dissimilar in appearance and have wide difference in prices, and therefore, refused the grant of an injunction.
Lotus Herbals Pvt. Ltd. v. DPKA Universal Consumer Venture Pvt. Ltd. [CS (COMM) 454/2023], Judgment dated January 25, 2024