‘Utterly Butterly’ win for Amul in Canada over trademark infringement case

‘The Taste of India’ tagline of Amul was recently acknowledged by Canada. The Appeal Board of Canada for Intellectual Property has granted Indian milk giant Amul trademark registration. Also, after the Federal Court of Canada has filed an infringement of a trademark, the nation’s biggest co-operative will get damages in the amount of Canadian dollars (CAD) 32,733. It was the first case of Amul’s filing on foreign soil against any corporation. Amul Canada and four others had been removed from the Federal Court of Canada by the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited, or the Gujarat Co‐operative Milk Marketing Federation, which brands Amul.

Amul learned in January 2020 that the Group had unambiguously stolen the ‘Amul’ and the ‘Amul-The Taste of India’ logo on the social media site LinkedIn. The group built a false profile. Amul Canada has a logo on its LinkedIn profile to “see work” and to “follow” the four defendant were named to Amul Canada’s workers. Although the accused had attempted numerous times to serve the defendant, they never answered. A former party request for default judgement was then brought forward by Amul’s lawyers. They contended that Amul had never licenced or consented to utilise its trade-marks and copyrights in any way for Amul Canada or any of the four people.

The Federal Court found Amul clearly met all the requirements for proving “goodwill,” misrepresentation of the public, real or probable harm to Amul, which were essential to establishing “passing away” tests.
The Federal Court ruled that the defendants violated Amul’s copyright and granted a permanent injunction restricting them from breaking ‘Amul’ and ‘Amul-The Taste of India’ trademark and copyright.
For the past 22 years, GCMMF has exported milk products to the USA. Amul Kool, ice cream and milk snacks have started to be exported to Canada during the previous two years.