In a relief to Patanjali Foods, the Bombay High Court has passed a John Doe (unknown parties) order directing Meta Platforms Inc and all others to take down defamatory videos which allegedly infringe its registered trademark.
Justice Manish Pitale, on May 4, also passed an interim order restraining Meta Platforms from circulating videos which Patanjali had objected to in its suit alleging infringement of its trademark Mahakosh, an edible oil product manufactured by it.
Patanjali had gone to HC against Facebook video
The HC was hearing a suit filed by Patanjali, through advocate Apporv Srivastava aggrieved by a video circulating on Facebook containing disparaging remarks against the product. It sought urgent reliefs claiming that the videos would continue to hurt its reputation.
The company claimed: “The video not only infringes Patanjali’s registered trademark but it has the effect of spreading misleading and false information and impression in the minds of the general public with regard to the product bearing the registered trademark.”
Patanjali contended that it has owned the registered trademark since 1998 and had garnered substantial goodwill. It further submitted that substantial goodwill has been created in favour of the Plaintiff in the context of the said registered trademarks.
Patanjali issued cease and desist notices to Meta platforms
The suit said it came across certain videos on social media platforms, like Facebook and WhatsApp, wherein disparaging remarks have been made about its product bearing the registered trademark. “A particular community has been targeted to spread mis-information and disparaging information about the products of the Plaintiff (Plaintiff), with a call to boycott of the said product,” it added.
It issued cease and desist notices to Meta platforms, but received no response. Hence it approached the HC.
Prima facie Section 29 made out: HC
After going through the material, the court expressed that it was satisfied that prima facie the ingredients of Section 29 (infringement of registered trademarks) was made out. It also noted that unless relief was granted to Patanjali, it is likely to “suffer grave and irreparable loss”.
“The contents of the video in question, available on Meta platforms prima facie, appears to have infringed upon the registered trademark of Patanjali. A strong prima facie case is indeed made out for granting ad-interim reliefs in favour of Patanjali,” the court said.
In view of this, the Court granted an interim injunction restraining Meta platforms from infringing on Patanjali’s registered trademarks, including ‘Mahakosh’.
