In a relief for the popular ice-cream brand ‘Naturals’, the Bombay High Court has restrained a Gujarat-based firm with a similar name from using the word “natural” for its ice cream or any other related product until further order.
Raghunandan Kamath-promoted firms Siddhant Ice-creams LLP and Kamath Ourtimes ice-creams Pvt. Ltd. had sought the court’s intervention to restrain Vadodara-based Natural Ice Cream from using the same trade name for their products and claimed damage compensation of over Rs. 100 crore. Lawyers for the Mumbai-based Naturals brand argued that the company was founded in 1984 and has over 130 franchises across the country.
By using the mark ‘Natural’, which is identical and bears resemblance to the Natural Family Marks (petitioner’s), the defendants (Patel) are misrepresenting their goods/services and businesses,” lawyers for the company said. Such misrepresentation…is causing or likely to cause confusion or deception for the trade, public and consumers.”
The Mumbai-based company’s lawyers also argued that by such misrepresentation, the defendants are passing off or attempting to pass their goods/business as those of the petitioners as if their franchise parlour is authorized by the company. Passing-off in IPR law means making a false representation that is likely to induce a person to believe that the goods or services are those of another.
On July 26, while granting interim relief to the Kamath, the court restrained the Vadodara-based company from using the word “Natural” for their products or as a business/trading name or any other similar name until September 9.