Recently, the Delhi High Court granted an ex-parte ad interim injunction in favour of Gemini Edibles and Fats India Limited, restraining the defendant from using a deceptively similar mark ‘FREEDAY’ with an identical product packaging.
The plaintiff, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of various FMCG products, including edible oils since 2008. The plaintiff claimed to have used and own a registration for the mark FREEDOM since the year 2009.
In 2019, the plaintiff came across use of and registration for the FREEDAY mark by the defendant and sent a cease and desist letter. Since there was no compliance, the plaintiff filed a cancellation petition before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (“IPAB”) to cancel the FREEDAY mark which was allowed by the IPAB in 2020. Upon conducting an investigation in May 2022, the plaintiff ascertained that goods bearing the FREEDAY mark in an packaging identical to the plaintiff’s packaging were still being sold by the defendant.
The court held that the rival marks, FREEDAY and FREEDOM, are nearly identical and the colour combination, overall get up and layout arrangement of the defendant’s packaging is imitative of the plaintiff’s packaging and likely to cause confusion. Given this, the court granted the plaintiff an ex-parte ad interim injunction restraining the defendant from using the mark FREEDAY or any other identical/ deceptively similar mark or packaging in respect of edible oils or any other allied or cognate goods.
Gemini Edibles and Fats India Ltd. v. LV Bhavani Sankar, CS(COMM) 566/2022, Delhi High Court