Where slowdown and an uncertain future amidst lockdowns have crippled the economy with drastic losses and downfalls for several business groups, Britannia seems to have broken all records by touching new heights with a 18%-23% increase in its revenue. But the company's growth is not limited to just financial returns, it has also won a major legal battle, albeit out of court.
Recently, Britannia Industries had filed a case against Future Groups claiming that the Kishore Biyani-led company had copied the packaging of several of its popular biscuit brands. Britannia alleged that Future Consumer's packaging for some of its 'Tasty Treat' brand biscuits was deceptively similar to Britannia's biscuit packs. It was a case for trademark infringement as well as that of "passing off". Take a look at the packaging of products of both brands:
"Deceptively similar" trademarks can be understood as a trademark created, almost similar or a lookalike of an already existing trademark in order to deceive and confuse the consumers leading to unethical and wrongful loss in business and risk in the long created goodwill. This concept of deceptive similarity has been discussed in The Trade Marks Act, 1999 under Section 2(h) as:
"A mark shall be deemed to be deceptively similar to another mark if it so nearly resembles that other mark as to be likely to deceive or cause confusion."
The concept of deceptive similarity has been widely recognised as a ground for trademark infringement under various trademark regimes. Under the Indian legal system also, deceptive similarity is considered as a ground for not granting the registration of the trademark to an applicant by the Registrar of Trademarks.
However, the Act does not ascertain any criteria that can decide the ambit and scope of the phrase "deceptive similarity," hence, leaving a vacuum in its wake. For cases related to Intellectual Properties, some criteria to test deceptive similarity, as have been recognised by the courts, can be:
- deceptive similarity;
- principles of phonetic and visual similarity;
- goodwill, reputation, test of likelihood, and so on.
In conclusion: With the parties having long-standing business dealings, both the companies have agreed for out-of-court settlement wishing to resolve the present issue amicably. Further, the Future Consumer has also agreed to make some changes to its packs.
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