The Delhi High Court has set aside most of the petitions filed by Resilient Innovation. It is the owner of the fintech company, BharatPe. The company had filed a case of trademark infringement against PhonePe, its rival.
BharatPe sought an order from the Registrar of Trademark to scrap off the ‘Pe’ device mark of PhonePe, but High Court dismissed it.
PhonePe called the dismissed petitions filed by its competitors ‘baseless and frivolous’. The Walmart-backed company said that BharatPe was trying to distract the court’s attention from its own misuse of PhonePe’s trademarks.
BharatPe gave a contradictory statement, where it said that cancelling the petitions does not mean that they are baseless and frivolous.
The court had not mentioned any merits of the case. BharatPe is dedicated to taking all the necessary actions within the legal limits to cancel the actions against the registrations held by PhonePe for the device mark ‘Pe’ in the Devanagari script.
As part of the ongoing war between the two companies, last month, BharatPe filed the petition in the Delhi High Court to cancel various registrations asserted by PhonePe for the device mark ‘Pe’ in Devanagari script.
The usage of the word Pe (pronounced as ‘Pay’) has been a sign of tension between both firms for several years.
Last month, in a different case, Bombay High Court had rejected PhonePe’s exclusive claim over the word ‘Pe’, in a lawsuit blaming BharatPe’s ‘PostPe’ (buy now pay later app) as trademark infringement. It provoked BharatPe to file a petition in Delhi HC to cancel all the trademark registrations of PhonePe.
Both companies competed aggressively in their marketing drive with television ads aired during the ongoing T20 World Cup.
PhonePe also mentioned that the earlier use and registrations held by PhonePe for ‘Pe’ must be accepted and creating confusion in the minds of the large customer base of PhonePe by deceptively similar marks should stop.
PhonePe will keep the masses updated about the matters filed in the Delhi HC and Bombay HC against Resilient Innovations, who dishonestly use ‘BharatPe’ and ‘PostPe’ marks for brand confusion in the digital payment space. They will take all the necessary steps to safeguard their brand.
PhonePe withdrew the lawsuit at the Bombay High Court, but the court has given them the liberty to file a fresh case keeping in mind the rights and contentions of the parties open.
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
