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Emami drags Patanjali to court, claims hair oil bottles look similar

Patanjali Ayurved has launched 'Kesh Kanti', which Emami has claimed is an infringement of its trade mark 'Kesh King'.

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With competition between Patanjali and rest of the FMCG sector heating up, Emami Ltd has gone into confrontational mode, accusing the Baba Ramdev-promoted ayurvedic behemoth of copying design and trade mark of its 'Kesh King' brand of hair tonic.

Patanjali Ayurved has launched 'Kesh Kanti', which Emami has claimed is an infringement of its trade mark 'Kesh King'. The court has prima facie found infringement of design and has directed Patanjali to stay away from dealing with the product for 10 weeks.

"This court prima facie finds the infringement of a design and therefore the protection against such infringement should be given," judge Harish Tandon of Calcutta High Court has said directing that the case would again be taken up after three weeks.

So, what made Kolkata-based FMCG major Emami take on Haridwar-based Patanjali Ayurved?

Emami in June 2015 bought Kesh King, an ayurvedic hair and scalp care brand developed by Sanjeev Kumar Juneja of SBS Biotech in 2008.

The deal gave the Kolkata-based company access to Rs 300-crore category leading high-margin brand that was growing at a compounded rate of 61% over the past three years.

The product has been described as based on ayurvedic formula that protects and nourishes hair, prevents premature greying, dandruff, hair fall, sleeplessness and headache.

Emami has now claimed before the court that trademark Kesh Kanti of Patanjali is "structurally and phonetically similar" and there is also "similarity in the style of writing and font with Kesh King".

"The product of the respondents is marketed in the bottle after pirating and copying the registered design of the petitioner," Emami's lawyers have told the court.

Emami claimed that before it bought the brand, its erstwhile owner had adopted a "unique, aesthetic and innovative shape of a bottle" and got such design registered with the Controller of Patent and Designs in 2011.

The court has directed Emami to serve copy of the injunction application upon Patanjali.

It's not the first time Patanjali's `Kesh Kanti' brand has been pulled up. Earlier, Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) found the advertisement for the brand misleading as Patanjali reportedly failed to provide any clinical evidence for the claims made in its advertisement campaign.

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