The Delhi High Court has restrained a tea brand Grey Mantra Solutions from selling their manufactured products under the mark ‘Teacurry’ and ‘Just Vedic’ with the packaging that substantially imitated 'Chaayos’ trade dress. The said packaging imitated the colours, some flavour names and the water mark of the word ‘chaai’. The defendant, in the present case offered various flavours of tea on online platforms.

In the present matter, a suit was filed by the plaintiff-Sunshine Teahouse Ltd., owner of the brand name ‘Chaayos’, used in respect of tea and related products. The plaintiff also runs and maintains tea cafes serving tea, beverages, sandwiches, cakes, pastries, cookies under the name ‘Chaayos’. The mark ‘Chaayos’ was adopted in the year 2012 and has a registration for the mark since 2017. Apart from running and operating its tea outlets, has also launched products under the brand name in various flavours and variants

Accordingly, a bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh observed, “…Clearly, there has been an imitation by the Defendant. The distinctive elements of the trade dress has been copied by the Defendant. The copying of the listings and the expressions used in the same also point to the clear malafide intention of the Defendant who is clearly trying to sail as close to the wind as possible. Listings play a crucial role in online marketing and sales. Copying of listings also indicates that the Defendant is trying to pass off its products as that of the Plaintiff, in view of the point-of-sale confusion that becomes clearly possible. Another point of concern is that after receiving the notice, ld. Counsel submits that some online listings have been modified to a new packaging with some features having been changed, however, when orders are placed, old products are delivered”.

Therefore, the court while issuing notice then restrained the defendant from making any fresh manufacture of their tea products in the impugned trade dress and for the already manufactured products directed the details of the inventory to be placed on record along with the monetary value of the same.

Advocate Ankit Miglani appeared for the petitioner.

The plaintiff in the matter had argued that the products in question showed that the overall trade dress including the colour combination, the manner of writing the word ‘chai’, or ‘masala’, the writing script, the various creative embellishments on the packaging, the depiction of flower, ellachi, tea, etc. are all almost identical to that of the Plaintiff.

However, the plaintiff still gave an opportunity to the Defendant to resolve the disputes, where the defendant even said that they wish to settle the matter, and sought certain information. After the information was provided there was no response at all.

Resultantly, the bench observed, “In view of the listings having been copied almost identically, the impugned listings shall be taken down within a week. If the same are not taken down by the Defendant, the Plaintiff is free to approach the online platforms with the specific URLs for taking down the said listings”. The bench has now listed the matter for January 29, 2024.

Cause Title: Sunshine Teahouse Pvt Ltd v. Grey Mantra Solutions

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Justice Pratibha M. Singh

Agatha Shukla