The very popular Tea and Beverages Brand, Chaayos has been granted relief in yet another round of infringement litigation by the single bench of HMJ Prathiba M. Singh of Delhi High Court. But what is the buzz all about?
The owner of the well-known brand “CHAAYOS,” Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd. (Plaintiff), operates tea cafés all throughout India and sells tea and related goods. In 2012, the Plaintiff adopted the “CHAAYOS” mark, and in 2017 they registered it. The Trademark Register has the mark CHAAYOS duly registered across multiple classes, and the Plaintiff manufactures and sells a variety of tea-related products in unique packaging via physical and online channels.
The growing popularity of the brand CHAAYOS can be witnessed from the fact that the products sold under the mark CHAAYOS has garnered a sale turn-over of approximately INR 10 Crores in the last financial year i.e., 2022-23 and the business of the Plaintiff has spread on a global level.
Under the trade names “TEACURRY” and “JUST VEDIC“, the Defendant in this case also sells different kinds of tea on websites like Amazon. According to the Plaintiff, the primary issue brought before the Delhi High Court was that the Defendants imitated the Plaintiff’s trade dress by adopting and copying multiple unique components of the Plaintiff’s packaging while selling tea items online.
Moreover, while adopting a similar trade dress, the Defendants have imitated colors, flavours as well as various creative embellishments ideated by the Plaintiff.
Despite an earlier attempt by the Plaintiff in trying to settle the matter with the Defendants, it went in vain as the Defendants remained silent on this aspect, hence the suit was filed.
On a direct comparison the packaging, the Delhi High Court arrived at the finding that Defendants have indeed created a packaging resembling with the Plaintiff with the motive of passing of their products as that of the Plaintiff and accordingly restrained the Defendants from manufacturing any tea products bearing the impugned trade dress.
Once again, this order signifies the importance of bearing a unique trade dress and how any business should avoid riding on the goodwill of an established business.
