Granting interim relief to Patanjali, the Bombay High Court has directed social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp to block the circulation of a video regarding Patanjali’s Mahakosh Refined Soyabean Oil until the pendency of its Trademark Infringement Suit.
The single-judge bench of Manish Pitale has directed the removal of the URLs of the video from Meta Platforms as it noted that plaintiff-Patanjali made a strong prima-facie case that the video is infringing its trademark.
Counsel for the Applicant/Plaintiff submitted that there is urgency in the matter, for the reason that the Plaintiff is aggrieved by a video circulating on Facebook pages containing disparaging remarks against the product of the Plaintiff i.e. edible oil bearing the registered trademark “MAHAKOSH”. It was the case of the Plaintiff that unless urgent ad-interim reliefs are granted, the said videos would continue to hurt the reputation of the registered trademark of the Plaintiff. Section 29(8) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, particularly clauses (a) and (c) thereof, are invoked on behalf of Plaintiff in the present proceedings while pressing for urgent ad-interim reliefs.
According to the Plaintiff, sometime in the middle of April, 2023, the distributors and officials of the Plaintiff came across videos uploaded on the platform of Defendant No. 1, wherein disparaging remarks have been made about the product of the Plaintiff bearing the registered trademark. A particular community has been targeted. to spread mis-information and disparaging information about the products of the Plaintiff, with a call to boycott of the said product.
Accordingly, cease and desist notices were issued to the Defendant No. 1 in April, 2023, and also an e-mail to take specific steps in order to ensure that such videos would be deleted from the platform. Upon receiving no response, the plaintiff felt constrained to file the present plaint.
The Court noted that the plaintiff is a leading manufacturer and marketer of a range of edible oils and it is a pioneer of Soya foods in India. Noting that the defamatory video on online platforms has been circulated against a particular product of the Plaintiff called Mahakosh Refined Soyabean Oil, the court observed that it is not only infringing the registered trademark of the Plaintiff but has the effect of spreading misleading and false information and impression in the minds of the general public with regard to the said product of the Plaintiff bearing the registered trademark.
The Court was satisfied that prima-facie the ingredients of Section 29(8) (a) and (c) of the Trademarks Infringement Act are made out.
"The contents of the video in question, available an the platform of Defendant No. 1, prima facie appears to have infringed upon the registered trademark of the Plaintiff. A strong prima facie case is indeed made out for granting ad-interim reliefs in favour of the Plaintiff."
The Court was further convinced that unless ad-interim reliefs as prayed are granted in favour of the Plaintiff, it is likely to suffer grave and irreparable loss, thereby showing that the balance of convenience is in favour of the Plaintiff.
It accordingly allowed the prayer for temporary injunction.
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