Delhi HC grants Delhi Marketing, rights to use brand name ‘SugarLite’

Hon’ble Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi comprising of Justice Manmohan and Justice Saurabh Banerjee and by order (FAO (Comm) no - 73 of 2021) dated 12 May 2023, grants exclusive rights to use the brand name ‘SUGARLITE’ to Delhi Marketing, a Delhi based ‘Make in India’ firm that markets and sells Dahi under the brand name ‘SUGARLITE’, bring the registered proprietor under Class 29. And owns several other popular brands such Dairy Best, Livlite, in a suit filed against Zydus Wellness.

Now Zydus Wellness would not be able to use the brand name SugarLite in any permutation or combination for its products, as it has been using.

The Division Bench held that this case required interference by the appellate court as there was patent illegality in the order of the Ld. Trial Court.

The Court observed that not only the competing marks were identical, the respective products were allied and cognate products as they are generally procured from the same source in the market and sold over the counter to almost the same class of purchasers, and therefore there is likelihood of confusion in the minds of the general public in assuming that the two competing marks are emanating from a common source of origin.

The Court also noted that Zydus knowingly took a big calculated risk in adopting an identically similar mark “SugarLite” as that of the registered trademark “SUGARLITE” of Appellant despite complete knowledge of its existence since before.

“The Hon’ble Justices observed set aside the previous order of the District Judge and called the order of the Ld. Trial Court “arbitrary, capricious and perverse, completely ignoring the documents on record, passed against the settled principles of law.”