Petitions filed by Resilient Innovation aka BharatPe Who sought the removal of registration by the opponent phonepe With the Register of Trademarks’Feather‘ Device Mark, as per the court order seen by ET.
Delhi HC quashed petition In view of a pending case of trademark Violation between two firms before another bench in the same court.
“… In view of the provisions of section 124, it is clear that the present petitions could not have been filed by the Court in (CS (COMM) 292/2019) without fixing an issue with respect to the legality of the trademark, as to whose was conducted by the Supreme Court in Patel Field Martial Agencies (Supra),” the Delhi HC said.
“For the above reasons, the present petitions are dismissed along with the pending applications,” the court said.
PhonePe dismissed the petitions dismissed in a statement on Friday BharatPe as “frivolous and baseless.” The Walmart-backed fintech said in its statement that BharatPe’s petitions were “nothing more than a poor attempt to divert the attention of the court from its misuse and infringement of PhonePe’s trademark.”
As part of the ongoing dispute between the two digital payments firms, BharatPe last month filed a petition seeking cancellation of several registrations conducted by PhonePe Pvt. Ltd. in Devanagari script for ‘Pay’ instrument symbol.
The latest development is another indication of the growing tension between the two firms over the use of the word ‘pay’ (pronounced as pay) over the years.
Last month, in a separate case, the Bombay High Court dismissed PhonePe’s claim of exclusivity on the word “pay” in the interim phase. PhonePe had filed a fresh suit against BharatPe’s ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) app PostPe for trademark infringement. The Bengaluru-based startup had approached the Bombay HC, seeking an injunction to restrain Resilient from using the registered trademark of PhonePe by using and promoting the “Postpay” or “Postpay” marks. In response to this injunction, BharatPe filed its quashing petition in the Delhi HC.
Both PhonePe and BharatPe’s PostPe are on an aggressive marketing campaign, as well as airing television commercials during the ongoing T20 World Cup.
PhonePe said in its statement on Friday, “Being in similar business, it is imperative that PhonePe accepts the old usage and true meaning acquired by Pay and by preventing misleading similar markings and infringements.” The large customer base of PhonePe should be destroyed.” ,
“We will continue to create brand confusion for the dishonest adoption of ‘BharatPe’ and ‘Postpay’ marks against flexible innovations in other cases filed by us before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court and Hon’ble Bombay High Court in the digital payment category and Take all necessary steps to protect the value of our brand,” the firm said.
Earlier this year in April, the Delhi HC had dismissed PhonePe’s separate interim injunction petition against BharatPe, claiming exclusivity on the word “pay”. The matter is now part of the trial as PhonePe did not want to press for the injunction appeal and sought a final solution through trial.
PhonePe said last month that when it withdrew the suit, the Bombay HC had given it liberty to file a fresh case keeping the rights and disputes of the parties open.
While filing the cancellation petition earlier, BharatPe has said that PhonePe’s trademark of the word ‘Pay’ is “against the larger public interest”.
“By taking a trademark for the “Pe” device mark in Devanagari script in sections relating to payment services in a country like India, where Hindi is the primary language of the public, PhonePe has acted against the wider public interest, and is resilient. To undo this. is committed to,” a spokesperson for BharatPe said on October 26 when the petitions were filed.
“FonePe has been claiming its registration for the “Pe” device mark in Devanagari script to be equivalent to the English word Pay/Pe. According to BharatPe’s statement, the Bombay High Court against the use of the “Postpay” mark by Resilient The same position was taken by PhonePe in a recently filed case, which is currently withdrawn.