The Bombay High Court on December 3, 2018, recognized ITC’s ‘Aashirvaad’ and its trade dress as well-known trademarks.

Justice S.J. Kathawalla was hearing the matter pertaining to the trade dress used by ITC for its Atta/Flour products.

ITC submitted before the court that it had conceived the idea of Aashirvaad “honestly and independently” in 2001, and had commissioned McCann-Erickson India Limited to create artwork for the packaging of the flour line.

The artwork was assigned to ITC for legitimate consideration in April 2003, following which the plaintiff applied to protect and safeguard this trademark under the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

Further, ITC informed the court that the company is using the trademark uninterruptedly since the year 2002. On account of this, the plaintiff has goodwill in the market associated with the said trademark and is the common law owner/proprietor of the same.

The court taking into consideration the submissions made by ITC, observed that “The Plaintiff has also zealously protected its trademarks and successfully enforced its rights in the trade mark “AASHIRVAAD” and Aashirvaad Trade Dress over the years.”

The defendant in this case, thus, agreed to discontinue using the impugned trade mark and trade dress. The Directors of the company have undertaken to pay a sum of Rs 10 lakh towards costs/damages in favour of “Tata Memorial Hospital”.

The Court accepted this undertaking and directed for the packaging paraphernalia of the defendants bearing the impugned trademark to be destroyed within a period of two weeks.