Bombay HC rules in favour of the company, which had alleged rival NTC of trademark infringement of its popular cigarette brand
ITC has got a major win at the Bombay High Court against trademark infringement by rival but much smaller entity NTC Industries.
Tobacco major ITC had earlier approached the court alleging infringement of trade mark and copyright with respect to one of its highest selling brand, Gold Flake.
Kolkata-based NTC, once known for bringing in brands like Rothmans or Oxford King, and currently having brands like Regent, had in 2014 re-launched one of its brands, National Gold Flake.
This irked its much bigger rival ITC as the packaging visuals were deceptively similar to its own popular brand.
"The company has re-launched some of its brands like National Gold Flake and Regent Flake in new designs under the 64 mm and 69 mm segments across various places in India," NTC has disclosed in its annual report.
After hearing both sides, the Bombay High Court judge GS Patel on Tuesday ruled in favour of ITC.
"The result of this discussion is that ITC succeeds. I do not think it is possible to suggest that NTC should be allowed now to flood the market with its rival products. That would undoubtedly result in a significant dilution of ITC's brand, and the resultant loss would be difficult to quantify," the judge said while giving out the order.
ITC not only claimed that the copyright artistic work, Gold Flake Kings Red, has been infringed by NTC in its use of 'Gold Flake', but also that its trade mark 'Honey Dew' been abused by rival 'Honey Drop' mark.
Interestingly, both ITC and NTC have claimed ownership of the brand name.
ITC says its earliest registration of the 'Gold Flake' mark dates back to 1942 while it started using the word mark Honey Dew since 1991.
NTC, or its predecessors, in contrast, had made attempts in 1989 and 1994 to register the trade mark 'National Gold Flake' by filing two applications for registration, but these were abandoned.
NTC also claimed the mark Gold Flake was registered as far back as in 1951 to one Montana Sports, and that it adopted the mark National Gold Flake in 1965.
The court, after careful study of the packaging of both the brands, found at least eight counts of similarity.
ITC told the court that it learnt of NTC's use of the rival marks in April 2014, shortly before it launched the suit.
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